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A MODERN HISTORY' 

OF 

NEW HAVEN 

AND 

EASTERN NEW HAVEN 
COUNTY 



By EVERETT G.'HILL 

Editor of the New Haven Register 



ILLUSTRATED 



VOLUME I 



NE>X- YORK -:- CHICAGO 

THE S. J. CLARKE PUBLISHING COMPANY 

1^18 



(§\ 



A. U V 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER I 
LOOKING BACKWARD TO BEGINNINGS 

THK LANDING OP THE QUINNIPIAC PILGRIMS — THE ROOTS OF NEW HAVEN AND 
THE PROCESS OF ITS EARLY DEVELOPMENT — JOHN DAVENPORT 'S TRINITY OP 
CHURCH AND STATE AND SCHOOL 1 

CHAPTER II 
THE MOTHER AND THE DAUGHTERS 

THE PURCHASE OF THE TRACT WHICH WAS TO MAKE NEW HAVEN COLONY AND 

THE CREATION PROM IT OP THE DAUGHTER TOWtNS THE BLOOD, SOCIAL AND 

COMMERCIAL RELATIONS AS DEVELOPED THROUGH THE YEARS 11 

CHAPTER III 
THE DUAL DEVELOPMENT 

THE COMMON ORIGIN OP THE TOWN AND THE COLLEGE IN DAVENPORT 's PLAN 

THE VICISSITUDES OP THE COLLEGIATE SCHOOL IN ITS FOUtNDING AND EARLY 
DAYS, AND THE NEW HAVEN-HARTPORD STRIPE OVER A SITE^ — THE PART OP 
ELIHU YALE AND THE ESTABLISHMENT OP YALE COLLEGE IN NEW HAVEN ... 19 



CHAPTER IV 
THE YEARS OF DISCORD 

THE CRUDE STRIPE OP TOWN AND GOWN — ITS SEQUEL IN THE MISUNDERSTAND- / 

ING AND SEPARATION OP THE COMMUNITY AND THE UNIVERSITY 29 



CHAPTER V 
THE BEGINNING OF HARMONY 

THE NEW ERA IN THE NEW CENTURY AND THE EMERGENCE OF YALE FROM ITS 

CLOISTER 36 



vi CONTENTS 

CHAPTER VI 
THE GOWN LAID ASIDE 

THE YALE BICENTENNIAL CELEBRATION OF 1901 THE PARTICIPATION OF YALE 

OFFICERS AND TEACHERS, GRADUATES AND 1JNDERGR.UJUATES IN THE RE- 
LIGIOUS, SOCIAL AND CIVIC LIFE OF NEW HAVEN 38 

CHAPTER VII 
THE DOORS THROWN OPEN 

THE SUNDAY OPENING OF THE Y.VLE SCIENTIFIC AND ART COLLECTIONS AND THE 

WELCOME TO WOOLSEY HALL — YALe'S INVITATION OF THE PEOPLE TO HER 

ATHLETIC FEASTS 44 

i 

CHAPTER VIII 
THE SEAL OF THE UNION 

THE PAGEANT OP 1916, ITS PREPARATION AND HISTORICAL CELEBRATION IN BAT- 
TELL CHAPEL THE GREAT SPECTACLE AT THE BOWL 49 

CHAPTER IX 
THE OLD AND THE NEW 

THE CONTRAST OF THE CENTURIES AND THE ELEMENTS THAT MAKE IT — A GEN- 
ERAL GLIMPSE OF TWENTIETH CENTURY NEW HAVEN , 61 

CHAPTER X 
THE IDEAL NEW HAVEN 

A REVIEW OP THE RESPECTS IN WHICH THE REPORT OF THE CIVIC IMPROVEMENT 

COMMITTEE WOULD MAKE OVER THE CITY 74 



CHAPTER XI 
NEW HAVEN GREEN 

ITS ORIGIN, OWNERSHIP AND PRESERVATION INTACT — ITS HISTORY AND ITS 

DEVEIX)PMENT — ITS RELIGIOUS, EDUCATIONAL, CIVIC AND OTHER USES SO 



CONTEXTS vii 

CHAPTER XII 
NEW HAVEN'S PARK SYSTEM 

ITS MODERN DEVELOPMENT FROM EAST .\ND WEST ROCKS— THE INTERESTING 

SYSTEM OF CITY SQUARES 92 

■ CHAPTER XIII 
NEW HAVEN'S CHARTERS 

HISTORY AND PROGRESS AND DEV'ELOPMENT FROM 1784 TO 1917 CONSOLIDATION 

OF TOWN AND CITY AND THE HOME RULE ACT RECENT REVISION EFFORTS . . . 100 

CHAPTER XIV 
NEW HAVEN'S CHURCHES 

THE ORIGINAL CHURCH AND ITS DESCENDANTS — THE REPRESENTATIVES OF THE 
CHURCH OF ENGLAND AND THE GROWTH OF ITS FORM OF WORSHIP IN A NEW 
ENGLAND CITY Ill 

CHAPTER XV 
NEW HAVEN'S CHURCHES (Concluded) 

THE EARLY AND LATER GROWTH OF THE METHODIST CHURCHES— THE BAPTIST 

CHURCHES — THE GRE.VT RECORD OF THE CHURCH OF ROME THE JEWISH 

CONGREGATIONS AND THEIR LEADERS — THE V^VLUABLE GROUP OF YOUNGER 
CHURCHES 126 

CHAPTER XVI 
NEW HAVEN'S SCHOOLS 

THEIR DEVEIXJPMENT AND PRESENT CONSTITUTION — THEIR EXCELLENT EQUIP- 
MENT, FORCE AND OPERATION MISCELLANEOUS AND PRFV'ATE SCHOOLS 1H6 

CHAPTER XVII 
NEW HAVEN'S LIBRARIES 

TARDY APPEARANCE OF A PUBLIC LIBRARY, AND ITS EARLY HISTORY — ERECTION 

OF THE NEW BUILDINC THE PUBLIC LIBRARY'S BRANCHES AND USE 148 



viii CONTENTS 

CHAPTER XVIII 
THE CIVIC DEVELOPMENT 

ORIGIN AND WORK OP THE CIVIC FEDERATION — OLD AND NEW HISTORY OF THE 

CHAMBER OF COMMERCE — SOME CONTRIBUTORY ORGANIZATIONS 158 

\ 

CHAPTER XIX 
MANUFACTURING IN NEW HAVEN 

SOME RESPECTS IN WHICH NEW HAVEN WAS A PIONEER DE'VELiOPMENT AND 

DESCRIPTION OF THE CITY 's INDUSTRIES 174 

CHAPTER XX 
THE NEW HAVEN MANUFACTURERS' EXHIBIT 

CONCEPTION AND FORMATION OP THE FIRST PERMANENT DISPLAY OP ITS SORT IN 

AMERICA — REVIEW OF SOME OF THE PRINCIPAL FEATURES IT PRESENTS 185 

"^ CHAPTER XXI 

THE YALE BOWL 

THE NEED WHICH MOTHERED IT AND THE MAN WHO FATHERED IT — ITS CON- 
STRUCTION, ITS DESCRIPTION AND ITS SUCCESS ITS UNEXPECTED RESOURCES. . 194 

CHAPTER XXII 
TRANSPORTATION AND COMMUNICATION 

EARLY DEVELOPMENTS IN TURNPIKES — THE MOUTH OP AN INTERESTING CANAL 

— STKiMBOAT AND RAILROAD LINES — NEW HAVEN AND THE TELEPHONE. . . . 203 

CHAPTER XXIII 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION 

NEW HAVEN THE MELTING POT — RACES REPRE.SENTED AND THEIR DISTRIBUTION 
IN THE CITY — THE PROCESS OP ASSIMILATION, IN NEW HAVEN AND THE 
ADJOINING TOWNS 216 



CONTENTS ix 

CHAPTER XXIV 
MAKERS OF MODERN NEW HAVEN 

IN GENERAL PUBLIC SERVICE — MEN OP THE CHURCHES LEADERS IN EDUCATION 

COURTS AND LAWYERS MEDICINE AND SOME OP THE PHYSICIANS — LEADERS 

IN GOVERiNMENT AND POLITICS BANKS AND BANKERS NEWSPAPERS AND 

PRINTERS M.VNUFACTURERS, MERCHANTS, ENGINEERS AND OTHERS 226 

CHAPTER XXV 
MILITARY NEW HAVEN 

THE governor's FOOT GIWRD AND ITS .Uv^CIENT AND MODERN SERVICE THE 

HORSE GUARDS AND THE INFANTRY COMPANIES — NEW HAVEN 'S PLACE IN 
THE WAR SERVICE OF TODAY 251 

CHAPTER XXVI 
THE PART OP WOMAN 

WOMEN AS INDIVIDUALS AND IN VARIOUS ORGANIZATIONS — THEIR REMARKABLE 

CONTRIBUTION TO THE PREVENTION OF JUVENILE DEUNQUENCY THE 

ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE SOCLIL SERVICE DANCE COMMITTEE 260 

CHAPTER XXVII 
FRATERNITIES AND CLUBS 

THE ANCIENT ORDER OF M.\SONRY IN NEW HAVEN ODD FELLOWSHIP THE 

KNIGHTS OF COLUMBUS, ITS HISTORY AND PRESENT WORK — FRATERNITIES IN 
GENERAL SOCIAL CLUBS THE TRADES UNION 269 

CHAPTER XXVIII 
MERIDEN 

COLONIAL ORIGINS AND HISTORY, ITS NAMING, INCORPORATION OF TOWN AND 

CITY, LATER GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT TO THE CITY OF TODAY 284 

CHAPTER XXIX 
MERIDEN (Continued) 

CHURCHES, SCHOOLS, CIVIC AND SOCIAL PROGRESS — MEN WHO HAVE MADE MERI- 
DEN. PHYSICIANS, LAWYERS, LEADERS IN LOCAL, STATE AND NATIONAL LIFE. . 290 



X CONTENTS 

CHAPTER XXX 
MERIDEN (Concluded) 

INTERESTING GROWTH AND PRESENT M.VNTJFACTURING GREATNESS OF THE "SIL- 
VER CITY, ' ' A CHARACTERISTIC YANKEE MANUFACTURING TOWN ". 301 

CHAPTER XXXI 
ORANGE 

EVOLUTION OF THE COLONLVL PARISH OF NORTH MILFORD INTO THE TOWN OF 

ORANGE, AND THE CHARACTER OF A RARE F^VRMING COMMUNITY 308 

CHAPTER XXXII 
WEST HAVEN 

THE SEPARATE COMMUNITY ON THE NEW IIA^'EN" SIDE OP ORANGE WHICH HAS 

GROWN INTO A NEAR-CITY ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE AMUSEMENT 

RESORT, SAVIN ROCK 313 

CHAPTER XXXIII 
WALLINGFORD 

EARLY LIFE OF THE MOTHER TOWN OF MERIDEN AND CHESHIRE — ITS CHURCHES, 

SCHOOLS AND SOME OF THE MEN WHO HAVE MADE IT 319 

CHAPTER XXXIV 
WALLINGFORD (Concluded) 

MANUFACTURING AND INDUSTRI.AL HISTORY OF AN IMPORTANT CENTER OF THE 

SILVER FABRICATING ART, AND ITS PRESENT DAY PROGRESS 325 

CHAPTER XXIXV 
BRANFORD 

ORIGINS OF AN IMPORTANT OLD COLONIAL TOWN, AND THE EVOLUTION FROM 

THEM OF A LIVELY, MODERN MANUFACTURING AND FARMING COMMUNITY. . . 330 



CONTENTS xi 

CHAPTER XXXVI 
STONY CREEK 

THE UNIQUE SHORE RESORT, THE CENTER OP THE QUARRY INDUSTRY, THE OYSTER 

PRODUCING VILLAGE WHICH IS A PART OF THE TOWN OF BRANFORD 338 



CHAPTER XXXVII 
HAMDEN 

TOWN OF MANY PARTS THAT ALMOST SURROUNDS NEW HAVEN, ANCIENT PLACE 

OF MANUFACTURES, MODERN SUBURBAN AND AGRICULTURAL TOWN 342 

CHAPTER XXXVIII 
MOUNT CARMEL 

THE INDEPENDENTLY FOUNDED AND DISTINGUISHED SECTION OF HAMDEN THAT 

LIES IN THE SHADOW OF THE FAMOUS OLD "SLEEPING GIANT". . 348 



CHAPTER XXXIX 
CHESHIRE 

THE FARMING AND INDUSTRIAL AND EDUCATIONAL COMMUNITY THAT WAS CARVED 

OUT OF WALLINGPORD IN THE EARLY DAYS OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. . . 357 

CHAPTER XL 
NORTH HAVEN 

EARLY OFFSHOOT OF THE NEW HAVEN COLONY, HOME OF DISTINGUISHED DIVINES, 

MODERN MINGLING OF INDUSTRIAL AND AGRICl'LTURAL TOWN 363 



CHAPTER XLI 
EAST HAVEN 

"east FARMS," ITS DEVELOPMENT, ITS GROWTH AND DIVISION AND ITS CHANGE 
TO THE AGRICULTURAL TOWN AND SUBURBAN SETTLEMENT WHICH IT IS 
. TODAY .- 368 



xii CONTENTS 

CHAPTER XLII 
GUILFORD 

THE INDEPENDENT ORIGIN YET NEW HAVEN AFFILIATION OF THE FOUNDERS, THE 
ESTABLISHMENT, DEVELOPMENT AND CONSTRUCTION OF THE PLANTATION 
OP MENUNKETUCK 374 

CHAPTER XLIII 
TWO SONS OF GUILFORD 

FITZ-GREENE HALLECK, CONNECTICUT'S GREATEST POET, AND HIS WORK WIL- 
LIAM HARRISON MURRAY, PREACHER, WRITER, DISCOVERER OF THE ADIRON- 
DACKS AND THE PERFECT HORSE 383 

CHAPTER XLIV 
MADISON 

EAST GUILFORD AND NORTH BRISTOL BEFORE THEIR SEPARATION FROM GUILFORD, 
THEIR DEVELOPMENT AND HISTORY AS DIVIDED PARTS OP AN UNUSUAL CON- 
NECTICUT TOWN 397 

CHAPTER XLV 
WOODBRIDGE 

THE STORY OF THE ANCIENT "PARISH OF AMITY," AND OF THE ELEMENTS WHICH 

MAKE THE FINE OLD TOWN ON THE HILLS OVERLOOKING NEW HAVEN 406 

CHAPTER XLVI 
NORTH BRAXFORD 

NORTH FARMS, THE HISTORIC AND COLONIAL PART OF BRANFORD, THE TOWN OF 
DEEP FOTTNDATIONS, HONORABLE RECORD AND SUBSTANTIAL MODERN 
INDUSTRY 414 



PREFACE 



The rush and pressure of daily newspaper work is not conducive to that 
leisure and spirit of research which must precede careful historical production, 
and this must explain in part, though it may not excuse, the deficiencies of these 
pages. Moreover, much ground has been covered in a brief period of time, and 
the defects which may appear were inevitable. It will be obvious that this is not 
an attempt to tell again the story of these towns in their past, already, in most 
cases, told so well before. As to origins, no more has been attempted than to 
pick up some threads which may bind together a story that is chiefly in the 
present time. As a panorama of the "New Haven and Eastern New Haven 
County" of today, with emphasis on certain significant features of them, these 
pages are presented. The writer realizes their deficiencies by the usual historical 
tests, and only hopes that their errors are chietly those of omission. 

Even this would not have been possible without sulistantial aid from many 
sources. The writer acknowledges his great indebtedness, in the construction 
of the early chapters, to Edwin Oviatt's inspiring "Beginnings of Yale,"' a 
work of the higliest historical value. In the chapters on later New Haven aid 
has come from many sources, some of which are noticed by the way, but espe- 
cially is credit due to the help of Charles E. Julin of the Chamber of Commerce. 
The chapters on Meriden would not have V)een possible but for George Munson 
Curtis's "Century of Meriden," the masterly record of that town. In addition, 
for help from many friends, most of whom must remain unmentioned here, the 
writer is deeply grateful. 

E. G. H. 
Hartford, CoxNEfTicrT, May 8, 1918. 



Ill 



A MODERN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN AND 
EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 



CHAPTER I 
LOOKING BACKWARD TO BEGINNINGS 

THE LANDING OF THE QUINNIPIAC PILGRIMS THE ROOTS OP NEW HAVEN AND THE 

PROCESS OF ITS EARLY DEVELOPMENT JOHN DAVENPORT 's TRINITY OF CHURCH 

AND STATE AND SCHOOL 



^Midway between where two mild raountaiu chaius, tapering down, the one 
from far north and the other from the northeast, end abruptly in accented 
heights close by Connecticut "s shore, has stood for nearly three centuries a 
unique New- "World community. The adventurous and inquisitive Dutch pioneers, 
who poked the noses of their shallops into more of our creek-mouths than we 
know, had seen, long before English foot was set upon it, the red plain between 
the sentinel rocks, which they had translated into their tongue as "Rodenburgh. " 
It was a fair land of agricultural, commercial and maritime promise, and the 
wonder is that the Dutch did not preempt it long before the English came, or 
at least claim it when they came. It seems, however, that the Dutch, safely 
separated by seventy-five miles of indistinctly trailed forest and marsh, never 
troubled themselves about their newer neighbors until some years later when 
those ambitious and grasping Englishmen came down and stirred them up — but 
that is another story. 

So the good ship Hector found no fort to threaten her progress when, on a 
breezy April Friday in 1638, she fortunately missed the then uncharted rocks 
off what is now Lighthouse Point, and entered the broad harbor of the Quin- 
nipiac. Her 300 people were not right from England, however, and they were 
not happening on this liarbor. For the Hector, with Pastor John Davenport 
and Master Theophilus Eaton in joint command, had left London almost a year 
earlier, and made her course directly for Boston. Somewhere in that section 
their fancy had located their promised land. With but the vaguest ideas of the 
extent of the new country, nothing short of the region of Pilgrim Plymouth 



2 A MODERN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN 

or greater Boston seemed to meet their requirements. But they demanded 
large room, as we shall see. It was not a town or a city, but a New World state 
that was to be different from any other earth had known, that the ambitious 
Davenport planned. As for Eaton, soon logically to be made governor with- 
out the formality of an election, what he wanted was a place to found a 
great trade metropolis. But both plans required space, and distance from 
rivals. No such place was found in Massachusetts. The Reverend John Daven- 
port, moreover, had other reasons for desiring to become, in a sense, lost in 
the wilderness. Archbishop William Laud of London, his implacable foe, had 
sworn that his hand should reach the rebellious Davenport, even in the New 
World, and the latter was minded to get where the archbishop would forget him. 

The Massachusetts neighbors, on their part, took another view of it. They 
were not slow to discern in the Rev. John Davenport, and as well in the 
substantial Theophilus Eaton, who had been a prosperous merchant in London 
before ever he started on his New World venture, stuff for progressive citizens 
such as the new colony needed. But neither of the leaders would listen to 
blandishments. Like earlier pioneers of that Holy Writ which was their law, 
and for similar reasons, they "sought a better country." Thej^ had some earthly 
guidance. Then, as since, war was opening up new country. It was Captain 
Stoughton, who had chased the doughty Pequot Indians down to the Connecticut 
marshes, who was able to tell the questers some good things about the region 
of the Quinnipiac. They had heard, too, of Dutch "Rodenburgh," and the 
information so appealed to the practical Eaton that he determined to prospect. 
He took a few of his best sailors, and probably in the good old Hector rounded 
Cape Cod — then, in pacifie August, quite a different region from that which 
the larger party must have found in the following March — and entered Long 
Island Sound. Past rocky Stonington, past to-be-historic New London, past 
that Saybrook Point which was later to play an important and almost dis- 
astrous part in John Davenport's plans, he made straight for the mouth of the 
Quinnipiac. He found what he wanted between the two red rocks, though it 
must have been but an imperfect idea he got of the virgin forest and untracked 
mai'sh. But his commercial eye saw its possibilities. 

Eaton wasted no time. Leaving a few squatters, as it were, for the perilous 
task of holding the ground until he could return with the larger party, he 
sailed back to Boston. It seems to have been no twenty-four hour trip from 
New Haven to Boston in those days, for it was impossible to get the party back 
before winter — which was as well for their health, no doubt. New Haven 
climate, as we may know, is more favorably introduced with spring than with 
winter. 

So it was not the Hector's first trip into Quinnipiac Harbor — that of April 
13, 1638.* This landing, however, is accepted as the legitimate first. It seems 
to have occurred to the respecters of signs in the party, somewhile they were 
working their way up past Morris Cove or the Palisades, that the day was 

* There is no little confusion as to this dite. Kvirlently this was O. S., which would 
make it. by o\ir calendar. April 24, and the a-tnal landing the following day, April 25. 




NEW HAVEN COLONY fflSTORIOAL SOCIETY BUILDING, NEW HAVEN 



• 


1 






THE FOUNDERS 0? THIS TOW^ 


1, 


IV -2' " "G XSAR TKI 5 S POT, 




ASSEMBLED HERE 




ro^ --E WORSFIP OF GOD 




r- -■■r,■,^ r-RST SUXD/W 









TABLET MARKING SPOT OF FIRST WORSHIP, AT GEORGE AND COLLEGE STREETS, 

NEW H.\VEN 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 3 

P'riday. Seeming to have come on a good place to anchor, they prevailed on 
their leaders, who mayhap needed no great persuasion, to cast out some anchors 
and wait for the next day. 

But for the old maps with which the modern i-eader is plentifully furnished, 
it might be difficult to api)reciate the location of that lauding. One has to travel 
full seven city blocks seaward from that spot, in these days, to hnd anything 
like navigable water. There is a modern, un-Puritan drugstore, at the time 
of this writing, near the spot where they are said iirst to have set foot on the 
red soil of Quiunipiac. For some blocks around — this being now somewhat 
in the center of the motor vehicle supply district, there is more gasoline than 
water. But in those days the harbor itself came almost to the edge of what is 
now Hill Street, and nearly at a converging point entered it two creeks, one 
from the direction of what is now State and Elm streets, and the other from 
some point in the present region of George and High streets. It was up this 
latter and larger creek that the Hector went as far as her navigatoi's deemed 
prudent, the actual landing being from the ship's boats. 

If our fancy is lively enough, we can imagine these black-cloaked, steeple- 
hatted and sea-weary navigators, not as stepping out of their boats on to easy, 
mossy shores, already greening under April's sun and rain, but as scrambling 
up the high red clay banks of the narrow creek, laden with considerable house- 
hold furniture as well as their clothes-chests. We have to imagine most of the 
scene, for the authentic accounts are meager. They found the few "squatters" 
Theophilus Eaton had left there the preceding fall to hold the land very glad 
to see them, we may believe. These had been living in rudely roofed dugouts 
on the banks of the creek, and with similar shelters, it appears, the newcomers 
liad to content themselves that summer and probably through most of the next 
winter. Close liy the creek, for the moment, was tlie center of New Haven. This 
accounts for the fact that the first gathering of the Rev. John Davenport's 
flock for religious service, which was on the day after they landed, was near 
this northeast corner of the present George and College streets. There, since 
1888, has stood a marble tablet suitably mai-king their first place of worship. 

II 

Superficially, this seems like the beginning of New Haven. But to under- 
stand the story, we shall have to go further back by some forty years. We shall 
find ourselves in that quaint old walled town of English Warwickshire which 
Tennyson first introduced to us as the result of his wait for the train — the very 
Coventry of Lady Godiva and Peeping Tom. For it is more than a coincidence 
that there, in the closing years of the sixteenth century and the opening of the 
next. John Davenport and Theophilus Eaton were boys together. And through 
Theophilus Eaton, as will later appear, was to come the natural connection 
of Elihu Yale with New Haven, and the name of Elihu Yale was to descend on 
the New Haven college of John Davenport's — to him — unrealized dream. 

It may seem a far cry from the time and circumstances in which John 



4 A MODERN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN 

Davenport of Coventry and Oxford became a rebel against the rule of the 
established church, to modern New Haven. But New Haven of today is a center 
of Congi-egatioualism, and the spirit of New Haven's sort of Congregationalism 
was born in John Davenport at Coventry. The later influences, at Oxford, in 
London and in Holland as a refugee, which made John Davenport a pioneer filled 
with the determination to find a spot so far from England and so remote from 
the vengeful eye of the tyrannical Bishop Laud of London that in it he might 
found a church-state after his own heart, it is not necessary to trace here. 

With these troubles the less idealistic Theophilus Eaton had less concern. 
He did, however, appreciate the possibilities for commercial opportunity which 
the New World might offer, and he was glad enough to join in the Davenport 
enterprise. It should not be supposed that there was no religious fervor in 
Eaton. It was not omitted from the constitution of any strong men of his land 
and time. He never demurred, as far as we can learn, at the churehly nature 
of the state of which he was to become the first governor. It was before the 
party sailed, not on the way over, that a covenant was drawn up and signed 
by some representative of each of the groups in the company, somewhat plainly 
defining the character of the unique government which it was proposed to es- 
tablish. The most we know of it is from the manner in which it worked out in 
New Haven's later history. It worked out its own destruction, by the way, for 
from reasons inherent in the very democratic air of the New World, it was out of 
the question for so utter an autocracy to outlast the vei-y beginnings of the 
primitive settlement. 

However, John Davenport and Theophilus Eaton must have been good 
friends, or at least very greatly in harmony in their confidence that the church- 
state was a sure foundation. If there was any clash of authority in their joint 
leadership, the record of it has not come down. The pastor was ruler, judge 
and executor in things spiritual ; the governor had the same authority in things 
temporal. But often it must have been hard to find the dividing line between 
the two. The laws were the laws of j\Ioses, and pastor and governor, about equally 
versed in them, were their joint interpreters. There was no participation in 
the government except by church members in good and regular standing — the 
regenerate who had brought forth works meet for repentance. They took their 
religion very seriously. They were so intolerant, not only here but in other 
parts of New England, of those who chanced to differ from them in matters of 
religious belief or practice, that they made the persecution of the churchmen 
of Old England look anaemic. On week days Governor Eaton's court sat — and 
considering the smallness of the population it had a busier time than our police 
court of today — and dealt with those against whom, it was natural from the 
critical spirit of the times, there should be abundant accusations. There was 
swift hearing, stern judgment — and there was no appeal. It was not always a 
meekly received judgment, for the early settlers were human, and the New World 
bred a sense of justice that could not always have matched the Davenport-Eaton 
sort. It is a ti'emendous trilrate to the genius of the joint arbiters of this strange 
republic that for thirty years they maintained it in a fashion, and that its down- 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 5 

fall was hastened by circumstances which they could not control — circumstances 
which came in considerable measure fi'om without. But it matched the Cal- 
vinistic theology which Davenport brought with hiui, which his successors main- 
tained for a good deal more than thirty years. 

Meanwhile, the town had shaped itself physically in a manner that cannot 
but be intei-esting to us. Some crude assistance it had, to be sure. Modern 
dwellers in New Haven who often have wondered why the central streets follow 
no cardinal points of the compass may tind the answer in the vagaries of those 
early wandering creeks which have long since hidden their courses in shame. 
Coming, the one from the region of what is now upper Geoi'ge Street, its course 
about southeasterly, and the other from "somewhere out State Street," in a 
general southwesterly direction, they made a sort of rough right angle at the 
point where they entered the harbor head. This natural angle seemed to John 
Broekett, a young London surveyor who same over with the Davenport-Eaton 
party, better bounds than the points of the compass on which to lay out a city. 
So he marked out by map— the actual going by land was so far from being 
good that the map was easier — a towii of nine equal sciuares, one-half of a square 
mile in total extent. George Street and the West Creek were its southwestern 
.boundary; State Street and the East Creek its southeastern. On the northwest 
what was to be York Street limited it. To the northeast was what is now Grove 
Street, its name more than adeqiiately foretold by the interminable virgin forest 
which then began only a little north of Elm. 

These boundaries probably were not imaginary. The settlers had learned 
before they came to expect conflict from foes without as well as from their 
natural inward enemies of original sin. Against the latter they made it one of 
their early tasks to erect a ileeting House where Pastor Davenport might give 
them weekly — or more frequent — treatment for their souls. Their first task, 
however, was to enclose the nine squares with a substantial stockade. Even though 
trees wei-e plentiful and the digging was good (there is not in the whole nine 
squares today a rock or a stone, and proliably there were very few in those days") 
jthis could have been no light undertaking. To set close together two miles of 
sharpened palings, substantial logs well planted in the ground and extending 
seven feet above it, was a labor of spade and post and pestle that could hardly 
have been light, even for many hands. The evidence is conflicting, but the 
weight of it favors the belief that New Haven had this protecting stockade. 
The energetic Eaton, if not the provident Davenport, would liavc seen to that. 

Massive gates, closed and chained at "curfew," we may well believe, led 
through this stockade from the wild woods or marsh or meadows without. But 
he who entered for the first time noticed that the fencing habit was not limited 
to the outer wall. The early New Englanders had brought from across the sea 
the notion that "a man's house is his castle" needed emphasis. Each of the 
eight private squares was set off from the streets by five-foot palings. There was 
some economy and lighter substance in these barriers, for they were of split logs 
and a little less dense, perhaps, in their formation, but they served efifectually 
the purposes of protection and privacy. ^Moreover, as fast aS each householder 



6 A MODEKN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN 

was able to define the limits of his private "lot," he marked it by aii unmis- 
takable rail fence. We may well believe that there was much more thought, for 
a good many of those early years, of keeping the bounds than there was of 
keeping the lawns. 

Only the central square, which we call ' ' The Green, ' " which they called the 
"Market Place," was unfeneed. Its idea, of course, was from the Old World 
Market Place. But there is said to have been an interesting reason why the 
early fathers of New Haven devoted a ninth of their city to that open space 
for whose preservation we praise them now. Davenport himself, it seems, was 
a Millenarian, and such was his positive leadership that many of his followers 
nuist have shared whatever belief he had. That is, he expected not only the 
second coming of Christ, but the arrival of "a thousand of his saints" with him. 
Obviously, there must be some place where the thousand, plus the much less than 
a thousand of dwellers in New Haven, could conveniently gather. If that was 
their idea in making the Market Place so large, they safely exceeded their 
retiuirements, for New Haven in its twenty -eighth decade has often seen several 
times ten thousand people gathered on the lower half of the Green. 

This old Market Place, inevitably, was the heart of the life of those early 
days, as it is destined to be for many generations afterward, and may still 
be in generations yet ahead of us. As near to the exact center of it as they 
could guess, John Davenport hastened to erect his first Meeting House, the direct 
ancestor of the stately Center Church of today. There was little of stateliness 
or even of architecture about that first edifice. It was uncomely without and 
barren within. Its frame, rough-hewn from some of the very trees, no doubt, 
which had been cleared from the forest of the forming Mai'ket Place to make 
room for it, was as I'oughly covered with uneven boards, that barely kept out the 
rain and snow^ and not as successfully the cold. Its hipped roof rose sharply from 
its four square sides to a point in the center, which was surmounted by the 
square watchman's turret from wOiich the town drummer beat the call to worship. 
Above that it rose to a blunt steeple. Within were the raised pulpit and sounding 
board, and probaT)ly the hard, backless, most uncomfortable oak-slab seats which 
we know the churches of that era had. But for years it was the most imposing 
building in the town, and always it and its successors have been the center of 
New Haven's religious life, performing, even for the large city in which it dwells 
today, a distinct and acknowledged community service. 

It was far from being "The Green" in those early days, that great central 
square. Not until more than a century later did it begin to assume that order 
which marks it today. When the first Meeting House was erected, the square to 
the northwest of it was still irregularly wooded. In the spot that had been 
cleared were still the straggling stumps of the trees, wdth leaf-strewn sand 
between. Most of the space between the Meeting House and Church Street — 
then "The Mill Highway" — was a swamp, crossed by two log causeways. The 
Meeting House was erected in 1639 or 1640, and the following year the first 
apparent move toward public education was made in the building of a school- 
house, to the northward midway between the house of worship and Elm Street. 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 7 

The only other building purpose to which the Market Place was put for several 
years was for a watclihouse, a "gaol, " and the necessary stocks and pillary, which 
stood in a group slightly northwest of the Meeting House. The burial ground, 
which became necessary even in that fii-st year, was, as we notice from its his- 
toric remnant, directly in the I'ear of the church. 

Dwelling houses, more or less pretentious, but all limited by the rude facili- 
ties of the time, grew apace with the public buildings. It seems likely that there 
were as many as forty-two buildings of various sorts as early as 1640. Governor 
Eaton's house, the most substantial in the colony, stood on the_ north side of 
Elm Street, a little above where Orange Street ci'osses it now. Mr. Davenport's 
was very near what is now the southeast corner of Elm and Orange. The other 
settlers had disposed themselves as their resources warranted, in buildings 
mostly around the Market Place side of the original nine squares, the extension 
being farther northward than in any other direction. There was considerable 
seaport activity, with the two landing places, one up George Street a "block" 
farther than the original landing on the creek bank, and the other on the East 
Creek near the corner of State and Chapel. There was a flour mill out near 
East Rock. There were clay pits, the primitive brickyards, out north State 
Street. There were many farms all around the edges. But these were daylight 
activities. It was several years before any but the pioneers who started new 
settlements "in the wilderness" made bold to build or spend their nights outside 
of the stockade. 

The development of the years that followed is not, in the main, a part of a 
' ' modern history. ' ' Leaving that as a ta.sk well done by others, let us turn now 
to certain beginnings which have significant prophecy of an important modern 
relation. 

Ill 

John Davenport did not conceive his ideal of church and state complete 
without the higher school to make a trinity. An Oxford scholar, with the best 
education that Old England could give, it was inevitable that he should include 
in his ambition for a New World paradise a strong and advanced school system. 
In 1637 at Boston he was one of the twelve leading men of the colony to estab- 
lish what later was to be Harvard College, under the authority of the General 
Court. Through that experience, the idea which he had took practical shape 
for the new state which he planned to found. It is probably that, when he took 
with him on his pilgrimage to Quinnipiac the young Ezekiel Cheever, and later 
when he established that able young educator in the cabin schoolhouse at Grove 
and Church streets, Davenport thought his college was beginning. It was another 
step of progress when he secured the erection, some six years later, of the school- 
house on the Market Place. It stood near the church for other reasons than 
convenience. It was to be in literal truth a church school. It was to supplement 
for six days, with a teacher in utter harmony with the preacher, the instruction of 
the Meeting House on the Sabbath day. It was to lead to a higher or collegiate 



8 A MODERN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN 

school, which was, as it is easy to read in the history of the school that did 
come, tirst of all au institution for the training of men for the Congregational 
ministry. 

But Ezekiel Cheever, excellent teacher that he was, had some educational 
ideas of his own, and they did not harmonize with Davenport's. He did not 
agree that all the classics worth knowing were bound up in the Bible, or that 
the chief end of man was to learn Calvinistic theology. So he parted company 
with John Davenport and New Haven in 1647, greatly to the loss of the latter 
and greatly to the advantage of Ipswich in the Massachusetts colony, and later 
to Cambridge and Boston, in which communities he continued his later remark- 
able educational career. John Davenport would have advanced his college much 
faster if he had kept the brilliant Cheever, but he must have his way. 

There is little to be said of the progress of John Davenport's educational 
plans in the remaining decade of his disheartening struggle in New Haven. 
His church-state republic was doomed to fail, and with it was inevitably bound 
up, as could easily be seen, his sort of college. But it is worthy to record that 
he planted in the minds of his associates of New Haven and the Connecticut 
colony the germ of a college in New Haven. That was just as much a part of 
. the New Haven construction, it seems, as the Meeting House or the Market Place. 
In the yeai's that followed, though it seemed almost certain that the college, when 
established, was to be elsewhere than in New Haven, perhaps far removed from 
it, there was in the subconscious mind of leaders like James Pierpont, successor 
to John Davenport in the old New Haven church, and the others who formed 
with him what fortiinately was the ma.jority in the control of the collegiate 
school's affairs, the thought that it was inseparable from New Haven. It was 
a naturally inseparable alliance, more of state and college than of state and 
church, which the plan of John Davenport involved. Yale became a part of New 
Haven, in fact, when the first pastor set the first teacher at work in his paternal- 
ized community, and then was formed a partnership which was to have, in today's 
era, a meaning that could not have been dreamed of then. 

It was an even longer path to the goal than the years seem to make it. That 
was a strange battle of events and wils which took place from 1640 to 1716, 
when the collegiate school wavered between New Haven, Branford. Killing- 
worth, Saybrook, Wethersfield and Milford, and the story has been well told 
elsewhere. Early in the course of it came the downfall of that impossible Utopia 
which Davenport dreamed of at Quinnipiac. It was partly due to Davenport's 
lack of understanding of human nature, partly due to forces which he could not 
control. The stern God whom he preached had not set His favor, it would seem, 
on the man-planned state. Probably He was not sufficiently consulted in its 
construction. The church, indeed, survived by reason of compulsion of all the 
support of the people, hut the educational plans, as we have seen, went sadly 
agley, and the ship of state went on political and commercial rocks instead of 
into a fair harbor. The New Haven gi'oup, weakened by the readiness of many 
settlers to find a freer air elsewhere, simply could not stand alone, and the 
others, with little love in their hearts for the autocracy of Davenport and 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 9 

Eatou, left it to its fate. That fate was to be absorbed in the hirger ConneL'tieut 
colony instead of remaining a colony in itself. 

Others of the bright dreams that came down the coast on board the old 
Hector had been shattered. New Haven has, as we have lived to see, commercial 
and industrial possibilities such as canny old Theojihilus Eaton never from the 
highest pinnacle of his ambition looked down upon, but that was only the middle 
of the seventeenth century. The stream of trade to and from London continued 
to flow to and from Boston, as it had done before. The New Haven commercial 
aspirants, who had built a small fleet of ships for the foreign trade, were 
obliged to content themselves with coasting to Boston or New- Amsterdam, or 
occasional trips to the Bernuidas or Barbadoes. If they had kept away from 
the region of New Amsterdam, they would have done better. That fated 
"Delaware" company was formed, and set up a trading post on Dutch territory. 
The Dutch promptly cleared these usurping Yankees out of their possessions, 
and the promoters of the Delaware company, in addition to having their scheme 
for wealth abruptly terminated, lost the £1,000 they put into it — which was a 
heavy disaster for New Haven in 1640. 

It was the l>eginning of bad luck, and it was the beginning of ti'ouble with 
the Dutch. The wonder is that the latter were so considerate as to refrain from 
coming up to New Haven and annexing "Rodenburgh" to New Amsterdam — a 
thing they might easily have done. Eaton and his associates purposed, however, 
to redeem their fortunes liy a trading venture to England with the " Create 
Shippe, " but that w-ent down at sea, and £5,000 — about all the free capital that 
there was left in the colony — went down with it. After that they were very 
meek, and seem to have taken what Heaven — and hard work — sent them, keeping 
their feet on the ground. 

But all this while, and even when, thirty years after he first sailed up the 
clay-banked creek, disappointed John Davenport took his books and beliefs to 
Boston, burying his ambitions behind him, fate was laying the foundation for 
the better union that was to be. When in 16-37 Theophilus Eaton joined his 
fortunes with his old playmate of the earlier days at Coventry for an excursion 
to the New World, he long had been a prosperous merchant at London, and was 
married to his second wife. She had been the widow of David Yale of Denbigh- • 
shire, and by him had two sons, Thomas and David Yale. Both came over on 
the Hector. The former was the father of Elihu Yale. There was also a 
daughter, who later married the Edward Hopkins of the original Davenport 
party. Hopkins lost his heart to Hartford before the New Haven settlement- 
was made, however, and prospering greatly there, returned to London in 16.54 
with a considerable fortune, which he seems to have added to later. He was 
the patron of the Hopkins Grammai' School in New Haven. John Davenport 
had asked him to give his money for the college project instead, and had he done 
so, this might have been Hopkins instead of Yale College. 

It was not until sixty-four years later that the son of Thomas Yale, Boston 
born, London trained, made fabulously wealthy as an East India Company- 
protected plunderer in Old ^ladras, and later governor of the English trading 



10 A MODERN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN 



♦ 



post, Fort St. George, was moved by the strange iuterventioii of Cottou Mather 
and the perfectly iinderstandable urging of New Haven's London agent, Jeremiah 
Dummer, to part with a modicum of liis wealth for the struggling collegiate I 

school. After a stormy sixteen years in exile, it had become safely settled in 
New Haven. In Elihu Yale's gift — small enough compensation for the immortal 
gain of giving name to the college — it is possible to see rather the fulfillment 
of fate's pui-pose than the great enrichment of Yale. The securing of funds 
which made possible the winning of their fight to bring the college to New Haven 
had not been the work of a minute. It was gradually that the campaign of ~ 
Duinmer and the others on the other side had led up to Elihu Yale. But looking 
back now, it is easy to receive the impression that the alliance of New Haven 
and Yale was predestined from the fir.st. 



CHAPTER II 
THE MOTHER AND THE DAUGHTERS 

THE PURCHASE OF THE TRACT WHICH WAS TO MAKE NEW HAVEN COLONY AND THE 
CRE.4TI0N FROM IT OF THE DAUGHTER TOWNS THE BLOOD, SOCIAL AND COMMER- 
CIAL RELATIONS AS DEVELOPED THROUGH THE YEARS 



It must not be supposed that Pastor Davenport and Governor Eaton expected 
to make a state out of what is now included in the territorial limits of New Haven. 
Very earlj' in the progress of the settlement at Quinnipiae the process of expan- 
sion began. It continued until the land actually owned — as ownership went in 
those days — by the Davenport-Eaton Company, included, oddly enough, almost 
all but one section of that part of New Haven County with which the present 
history deals. This fact establishes without argument the proposition that New 
Haven is in a true sense the mother of all the towns included in what we have 
called "eastern New Haven County." 

This ownership was not acquired in any in-egular way. Thei-e was no seizui-e 
by force of the lands of the Indians, though the bargain seems to have been, as 
to its terms, one of those one-sided transactions which strike our business sense 
today as huraerous. When the settlers came they found here a peaceable tribe 
of Indians, the remnant, at least, of the tribe of the Quiunipiacs. If Captain 
Adrian Black, Dutch trader, who found -and named "Rodenburgh" in 1614, 
had been minded to come ashore and take possession, he might have shown less 
consideration for its nominal first owners than did the more diplomatic Theophi- 
lus Eaton. (Though for that matter, that worthy did not impoverish himself 
to give satisfaction, as we shall see.) The Quinnipiacs were minded to live 
peaceably with their white neighbors. Doubtless they were glad enough of the 
coming of courageous, well armed white men, whose residence might be expected 
to keep at a distance their old enemies, the Mohawks and Pequots. From what 
we can learn, the advent of the Davenport party, of whose 300 about fifty were 
adult males, probal)ly well armed after the manner of the times, did have a 
salutary efiPect on the warlike tribes who had caused so much trouble to the 
settlers further north and east. 

It probably was early in their first year in Quinnipiae that Governor Eaton 
and his associates drew up a verj- formal treaty of purcha.se, by which Moman- 

11 



12 A MODERN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN 

guiii, saeliem of the Quimiipiaes, agreed to the best of his signatory ability to 
ensure to the settlers the right and fee simple to hold and possess and hand 
down the territory which is now the town of New Haven. There was much 
formal verbiage, but what seems to interest us most is the compeusatiou agreed 
upon. There is supposed to have been in the possession of the members of the 
Davenport-Eaton party, when they landed in New Haven, wealth to the amount 
of some £36,000. The cash of that amount was not seriously depleted by this 
which the settlers agi-eed to turn over to the Quinnipiacs' treasury as compeusa- 
tiou for this land, and which, we suppose, was well and properly delivered : 

Twelve coats of English trucking cloth. 

Twelve alchemy spoons. 

Twelve hatchets. 

Twelve hoes. 

Twenty-four knives. 

Pour cases French knives and scissors. 

We have no means of knowing just how much territory was included in this 
sale. Certainly it covered all that we know as New Haven, and probably much 
more to the north and west. Nor can w^e tell just how much cash this interesting 
lot of merchandise would have fetched on the market. It may be worth noticing 
that of the real estate thus transferred the ]\Iarket Place alone, The Green as we 
now know it, is now estimated to have a market value of $3, .500, 000. But that was 
'many years ago. 

Theophilus Eaton looked ahead, and it is not unreasonable to suppose that 
he had a canny sense of the possible appreciation of real estate in such a great 
New World commercial metropolis as he proposed to create here. At any rate 
he must have known that the buying would never be any more favorable. 
Presently he found Sachem Montowese, son of Chief Sowheag, and his associate 
Sausenunck, who also had some land to sell. This second transaction was a 
triumph that put the first in the shade. Naturally, suburban land must go at 
lower rates. So the Eaton speculators acquired of ilontowese, apparently with 
less documentary formality, a tract extending sulistantially ten miles northward 
from the original purchase. Eastward it extended for eight miles from the 
Quinnipiac River toward the great river of Connecticut, and westward of the 
Quinnipiac five miles toward the Hudson. And for this considerable tract of 
something like 130 square miles Eaton and his associates paid "eleven coats of 
trucking cloth and one coat of English cloth" — with the assorted hardware 
left nut. 

This transaction was completed on December 11, 1638. By studying the 
territory thus acquired we may under.stand better how much of a state was 
created for New Haven, and how truh% in the course of resulting events. New 
Haven became the mother of the communities to the north and east, and in 
some measure to the west. 

For in this tract we shall find Hamden, North Haven, East Haven, Wood- 
bridge, all but the western section of Orange, Wallingford, Cheshire and the 



AND EASTEKN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 13 

lower part of Merideu, Branford aud North Branford. This accounts for 
practically all of the county included in this group except Guilford, which, 
though settled independently, in a sense, was not less a daughter of New Haven. 
This had been purchased from Colonel George Fenwick, a part of his acquisition 
from Uncas, the Mohegan sachem. 

Though the settlers drove sharp bargains with the Indians in the matter of 
purchase, as it seems to us, they did not insist upon immediate possession. The 
thousand or so of the Quiuuipiacs, and such of the Montowese braves and the 
Mohegans as the Mohawks and the Pequots had not driven out, were permitted 
to use the still unimproved laud for happy hunting grounds pretty much as 
they pleased. It was this cordial agreement, which seems, at least as far as New- 
Haven and its district w'as eoncei-ned, to have existed until "the last of the 
]\Iohegans" passed on to meet the Great Spirit, that added greatly to the lore 
and legend of those early times, as well as helped to keep the family of whites 
united. 

II 

"Quiunipiac" seems to have suited the settlers well enough as a name for 
their new commonwealth for a year or tw-o after their foundation. Just how 
the change came about we are not sure, but it was in 1639 that the Rev. Henry 
"Whitfield, with his group of twenty-five jiilgrinis from Kent and Surrey counties 
in England, stopped at Quinnipiac to see his old neighbors before going on to 
(iuilford. Perhaps he had not wholly decided where to go until he got their 
advice. It is said that his .ship was the first to enter the mouth of the Quin- 
nipiac itself, aud that he was so impressed l)y the harI)or that he called it "a 
Faire Haven." That name has stuck as applied to that locality. It seems not 
entirely clear how the settlement of John Davenport and Theophilus Eaton came 
to be called New Haven, but so it was formally christened in the town coui't in- 
the following year. 

It was in July of that same 1639 that the Rev. Henry AVhitfield and his 
party arrived at Guilford, which they for a time called by its Indian name 
llenunketuek. Though in some degree of independent origin, they were willing 
to consider themselves a branch of the New Haven settlement. This ]\Ienunke- 
tuck extended eastward from what is now the "West River to the Hammonassett, 
and northward to the present limits of the county. The "Whitfield party, 
presently enlarged by later arrivals from England, soon spread to East Guilford, 
later Madison, and from there across the Hammonassett to Killingworth, now 
Clinton. In this way was created the relation of New Haven with the original 
home of Yale, for the Rev. Abraham Pierson and his group had a distinct af- 
filiation with the older settlement on the Quinnipiac. Menunketuck was renamed 
Guilford in 1643, and East Guilford became ]Madison in 1826. 

But before this Abraham Pierson. father and son, turned up at Branford. 
Branford and North Branford were a part of the New Haven purchase from 
^Montowese. It was in 1643 that a part}' of uon-eonformists from "Wethersfield 



14 A MODERN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN 

secured a grant of the Eaton purchase of Totoket, and the following year they 
were joined there by the Rev. Abraham Pierson the elder, who had come from 
Boston by way of Southampton, Long Island. It is possible that Pierson the 
younger, who was to be the first president of Yale, was born in Branford. From 
the first it was much of a New Haven community, being settled under the di- 
rection of Davenport's town. The elder Pierson was an associate of John 
Davenport, and shared his views on church and government. And Branford 
was to be the scene, as it turned out, of the actual foundation of the Collegiate 
.school at the meeting of the ministers there in 1701. Abraham Pierson, though 
he was to have a sojourn m New Jersey meanwhile, was on his return to Con- 
necticut to shepherd the Killingworth church, to be the school's first rector. 

What was originally Walliugford occupied a considerable portion of the 
northern part of that tract procured from Montowese for the dozen precious 
coats. It was settled in 1669 in somewliat intimate relations with New Haven, 
being, as we are told, a village of the greater town. The following year it was 
named Walliugford, and made a town in its own right in 1672. Out of this 
.section we have also Cheshire, which was settled as "West Farms" of Walling- 
foi'd, and the next new town to be created out of the section. Cheshire set up 
business for itself in May, 1780. 

Woodbridge was a part of the original New Haven tract, sucli of it as was 
not inlierited from Milford. It has from the first been a good deal of a "church- 
state" of its own, first being known as "the parish of Amity," and receiving 
its later name from the Rev. Benjamin Woodbridge, its first minister. Its 
relation with New Haven has been notably intimate. Its commanding hills 
were ever attractive to city dwellers who sought the heights, and for the past 
few decades Woodbridge has been increasingly favored as a suburban residence 
by the people of New Haven. Today its fine old farmhouses are interspersed 
with the considerably more pretentious homes of original Woodbridgeites who 
have expanded and come back, or of discriminating New Haveners wlio realize 
\Voodbridge's beauty, health and blessing. 

Just acro.ss the Quinnipiae used to be East Haven — "East Farms" of tlie 
old settlers. Until 1701, it was substantially a jiart of New Haven, though the 
overflow in this direction doubtless began very early in the history of tlie mother 
community. That which is .still known as "Fair Haven East" was the beginning 
of the East Haven village. It was not until 1785 that it was incorporated as 
a separate town. As late as 1881 the Quinnipiae River was still the western 
boundary of East Haven. Then w'hat are now known as Fair Haven East, 
]\lorris Cove and Lighthouse Point were set off to New Haven, and are now its 
Fourteentli and Fifteenth wards. With the growtli of New Haven eastward 
and the growth of East Haven westward the break between the two has been 
almost filled, and East Haven has of late years become highly popular as a 
suburban residence place, so that the intimacy of relation between the two 
towns approaches that of unity. 

It seems impossible to leave New Haven in any direction without finding 
oneself in Hamden. In the old days, also, Hamden was very much on tlie edges 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 15 

of New Haven. That part of it nearest the city received the overflow early, 
as the thrifty farmers, getting over their fear of the Indians, desired to live 
on or near their farms. But it was 1785 before Hamden, whose name was a 
modification of that of the English patriot, John Hampden, became incorporated 
as a town. Mount Carmel, which still has many characteristics distinguishing 
it from the larger community — or rather group of communities — to the south- 
west of it, was a distinct village some time before that. As it stands todaj', 
Hamden is made up, in addition to Mount Carmel, of the more or less distinct 
villages of Hamden Plains, Highwood, Whitneyville and Centerville, but all 
of them have a real and increasing connection with the parent city. 

The venturesome William Bradley was a pioneer in making North Haven a 
distinct community as early as 16-10. His settlement was, however, considerably 
south of the North Haven which one reaches toda.y after a ride of three-quarters 
of an hour in an electric car. It was, in fact, only barely beyond the boundaries 
of the present New Haven territory. The settlement began, like the others, with 
the farm expansion idea. North Haven was "North Farms" until about the 
time that East Haven, Woodbridge and Hamden became independent towns. 
There seems to have been a definite recognition of the growth of the family in 
1785, and a naming of the children. It was then that North Haven was 
incorporated. 

We have seen how Wallingford was settled in 1669 with more land than it 
really knew what to do with. Before that the Hartford overflow had brought 
some pioneers from the north to what was the upper section of the present 
Meriden. It appears that the boundary line l)etween Hartford and New Haven 
counties was somewhat wavering at that time, and the part of Meriden settled 
by Jonathan Gilbert and Capt. Daniel Clark was then claimed by Hartford 
County. It was, however, only the upper part of the present Meriden. The 
southern and larger part was the "North Farms" of what wa.s then greater 
Wallingford. Meriden, therefore, seems to have been settled from both direc- 
tions. But we may find considerable warrant in the fact that it was ultimately 
included in New Haven County for concluding that the New Haven influence 
was much the greater. Meriden in recent years has grown to an individual 
importance that makes it independent of either New Haven or Hartford, but 
if we go back to beginnings we are justified in recognizing it as largely New 
Haven in its origin and affiliations. 

Orange, "so near and yet so far" from New Haven, has also a divided origin. 
To a large extent it is still as divided as that origin. Some day, perhaps, there 
will be a city of Orange, but today there is an Orange and a West Haven (not 
to mention Savin Rock), as there was in the latter part of the seventeenth 
century a village of West Haven and a village of North Milford. The explana- 
tion of this is the very natural one that the former was settled as an overflow 
of farmers from New Haven, and the latter as an overflow of farmers from 
Milford. The first was wholly a New Haven migration, and the second was 
partly so. Orange and West Haven, especially the latter, have with New Haven 



16 A MODERN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN 

today the iucreasing suburban residence conneetiou, but preserve a distiuet 
community individuality. 

The two youngest towns in the eastern part of the county owe their apparent 
youth to belated incorporation. One finds no lack of evidences of age in Madison. 
Some of the Henry Whitfield party may have gone, the very year they landed, 
on as far as Hammonassett, or what is locally known as "Scotland," which 
localities seem to have been settled earlier than what is called the center. East 
Guilford grew up contemporaneously with Guilford, both being, as has been 
noticed, under the motherly sponsorship of New Haven, and reckoned a part of 
the New Haven colony. Madison was incorporated and named in 1826. 

North Branford had a similar experience as the upper part of Totoket, being 
an overflow from the southern part of the town, and only slightly younger. It 
was 1831, however, before it was recognized and incorporated as a town, 
though it did not then change its name. 

Ill 

We may be sure that John Davenport regarded the whole of the first and 
second purchases from the Indians as included in his church-state. And with 
or without reason, he probably considered Guilford as in a way under his 
authority. In the early conception, then, practically all of the section of New 
Haven County which we have been considering was one community. All but the 
people of the Guilford gi'oup, and some of those, were from the New Haven 
settlement. There was much of common interest and something more than blood 
relationship, through tlie whole section. We should not, with our facility of 
communication, think twenty-five miles a great distance now, but some of us do. 
It is probable that from New Haven to East Guilford, though almost a day's 
journey on horseback over the bridle paths of 1645 or 1660, seemed less to them 
than it does to us. There was frequent visiting between the communities, and 
even a trip to Saybrook, far beyond the limits of this territory, seemed worth 
much more than the trouble. 

So the strength of the relationship between the mother and the daughter 
towns was not weakened as the years passed. New Haven was their market place, 
in several senses. The custom of "going to New Haven to trade" is older than at 
first we think. The ambition of Saybrook at the other end to become a metropolis 
was short lived. New Haven's dream of greatne.ss, for that matter, was long 
delayed in fulfillment, but for all that New Haven was the only place to get 
the things the people needed, and the place where they could dispose of what they 
had to sell. The natural relationships of origin liecame strengthened by others 
very real to a people who, with all their religious spirit and idealism, did not 
neglect to "look after the main chance." 

New Haven came to have a still greater hold on the country around with 
the development of its second century. There the Collegiate school, after a 
checkered early career which had isvolved Branford, Killingworth, Saybrook 
and Milford— not to mention Wethersfield— settled definitely, in 1716, as Yale 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 17 

College in New Haveu. And what able-minded youth in all those towns did not 
at some time cherish the hope of studying under Rector Williams or Clap, 
or the even then famous Tutor Jonathan Edwards, in that great, blue-painted, 
awe-inspiring building at the corner of Chapel and College streets? And in 
later years, as the "" Brick Row" grew to a quadrangle, Woolsey, Porter and 
Dwigiit were names that called to the ambition of learning. The graduate list 
of Yale is an impressive proof of the hold which this institution has had from 
the first on the young men of the daughter towns of New Haven. Such ties as 
these do not diminish with the years. 

But not all the boys of Branford and Guilford and Wallingford and Meriden 
who looked toward New Haven had their eyes on the Campus. New Haven 
did strike its commercial gait in good time, and golden opportunities grew. 

A veiy absorbing tale could be told, if there were not so many other things 
to tell, of the fibre from the surrounding towns that came to the making of the 
mother community's uplrailding in business and commerce and industry. With 
the builders, of course, came the workers. New Haven was the laud of oppor- 
tunity. It had, particularly after 1820, when it finally took its place as the 
leading city of Connecticut, the fa.scination of the metropolis. They came to 
make it fi-om the daughter towns, and brought to it their best and most pro- 
gressive stuff. Fortunate is that city whose foundations and early superstructure 
are thus made. 

There came to be a reciprocal movement, in time. It so happens, as we shall 
see, that the coast towns of this section of New Haven County, with their 
strangely fascinating variety of shoi'e and island and inlet, form an important 
summer playground, not only for Connecticut, but for regions farther away. 
It was not New Haven, strangely enough, that first discovered the shore of East 
Haven. Branford. Guilford and Madison, but New Haven was not slow to take 
notice. Then followed a rivalry between the summer shore seekers of Watei'- 
bury, Hai'tford, New Haven, Buffalo, New York and points beyond to improve 
this playground. The story of today tells itself in an almost continuous chain 
of summer settlements along the coast from South End to Haramonassett, which 
bring to some of these towns a summer population greater in itself than the 
winter rating of the census. To this New Haven gives its full share, and it 
all helps to keep green the old time relationship. 

Again, as the years have pas.sed, the sons of the country towns have come back. 
Prosperous New Haven business men have reclaimed or repurchased the well 
nigh abandoned farms of their early days, and are using them for summer 
homes or are running them for practical profit. And their example is con- 
tagious. The "back to the land" movement is having its results here. The 
wealtli of Woodbridge has already been mentioned. Others have discovered the 
beauty of North Branford, the fruit raising possibilities of Cheshire, the fer- 
tility of East Haven and Branford and Guilford and Madison. As Meriden 
has grown in size and wealth, it has become a center in itself, with its own 
suburban reach. But between all the towns there exists and grows a tie which 
is accounted for liy something more substantial than county boundaries. 

Vol. T— •_' 



18 A MODERN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN 

Modern cominunicatioii has come in time to further strengthen the chain. 
The rude bridle paths to the north and the east in the colony's early days were 
not unused, but comparatively few were those who passed over them. The many 
ride by the modern trolley, or the still more modern motor car. Every town 
of the section is in easy reach of New Haven, and makes full use of this advan- 
tage. To New Haven's shore, to New Haven's and West Haven's amusement 
resorts, to theaters, to concerts, athletic sports they come by thousands daily, 
almost the year around. Constantly, in these twentieth century days, there is 
a fulfillment of his dream of the large community that would have staggered — 
and not altogether pleased, we must fear — the ambitious but straight-laced 
John Davenport. But there are other features which he must reckon, if he 
passes judgment on the conditions of today, in compensation. 



CHAPTER III 
THE DUAL DEVELOPMENT 

THE COMMON ORIGIN OF TPIE TOWN AND THE COLLEGE IN DAVENPORT "S PLAN — THE 
VICISSITUDES OP THE COLLEGIATE SCHOOL IN ITS FOUNDING AND EARLY DAYS, AND 
THE NEW HAVEN-HARTFORD STRIFE OVER A SITE — THE PART OF ELIHU YALE AND 
THE ESTABLISHMENT OF Y'ALE COLLEGE IN NEW HAVEN 



Tliere have been some New Haveners so narrow of vision as to resent the 
complete description of their town as the home of Yale University. They are 
not the ones who know that this was destined from the beginning. We have 
seen that it was a trinity which John Davenport conceived — the church, the 
state and the college. His ideal community was to combine the three. He died 
without realizing one of them, and the spirit of the New World was not to brook 
the dependent alliance of church and state. But the college was to be a part of 
the Davenport community, though not in his time. And the college was to 
gi-ow, albeit with a far different superstructure, on the foundation which he laid. 

In all this ambition, as imperfectly they realized it, the people of his flock 
were with Pastor Davenport from the first. They dutifully attended those all- 
day Sabbath services, and sat, shivering but sanctified, through their two-hour 
prayers and their two-hour sermons, each a day's work for a minister, and 
requiring an able bodied assistant to carry the service through. They submitted 
obediently to the discipline which Governor Eaton measured oat to evil doers, 
his law being John Davenpoi't's interpretation of the Holy Scriptui-es. Rare 
were they who did not, through some seemingly natural weakness of the flesh, 
find themselves evil doers now and then. The governor's wife was not among 
the fortunate who escaped, l)ut was publicly punished for some ofi'euse of which 
the details have not come down. Even in a little community of scarce 300 people 
there were many who failed to measure up to the stern standard of the Puritan- 
elaborated Mosaic law. A settler would be leaving the "state" without per- 
mission; a storekeeper was charging more than a just profit on his goods (verily 
they had food dictators in those days) ; a watchman slept on his heat; a shoe- 
maker's leather was not up to standard; someone worked on the Sabbath. All 
these, and a multitude of others too many to mention here, were offenses pun- 
ishable in Magistrate Eaton's court, and were punished thei-e. The wonder is 

19 



20 A MODEKN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN 

that one pair of stocks sufficed to correct all the offenders worthy of their cor- 
rection. There they stood, a prominent feature in the scenery of the ilarket 
Place. Their sight may well have been a deterrent to the righteous who in- 
advertently sinned, but the wicked, then as now, passed on and were punished. 
This is a glimpse of the rigors of tlie church-state, and perhaps it hints at 
the reason why that alliance did not long survive. But in the matter of 
education it was different. There was need of education. True, these settlers 
had been used to good schools in the Old World, but here were their children, 
with nothing but the church to depend upon in their new home. Not all of 
them had been so fortunate as John Davenport and Theophilus Eaton in ancient 
but classic Coventry, blessed l>y its free school. Both knew the imperative 
necessity of establishing, as soon as might be, a system of education in their 
ideal state. Davenport had brought the Ezekiel Cheever aforementioned with 
him when he came down from Boston, and he set him at work as soon as ever • 
the people got into better quarters than their dugouts on the banks of the West 
Creek. It was a strange education, from our viewpoint, which Cheever threshed 
into the minds of the youth of the colony. He was long on Latin and strong 
on temper and birch rods. He was effective, but his reign, as we have seen, 
could not exist in the same domain with John Davenport. 

He was succeeded by others, more subservient to the pastor. They had 
to follow a somewhat definite plan, and in it we can trace the beginnings of 
the compulsory school system as it exists today in New England. The old 
English school system was undemocratic, and depended for its educational 
equipment on private endowment, while attendance was more or less voluntary. 
The plan which Davenport had in mind was conceived from the view he had of 
the Dutch school system. It was public ; it was thoroughly democratic ; it was 
compulsory. With "a sehoolhouse in every valley" it was to become the effi- 
cient educational force which we have today. 

But this was fundamental. Davenport had ambitions for higher education 
for his to-be-perfect comnuinity. Here he departed almost entirely, it seems, 
from the known lines, and proposed to establish a college to serve certain 
purposes which he deemed highly essential. It was not to be an institution 
for all. It was not to provide what we should call a liberal education. We 
have come to term such schools as he had in mind "theological seminaries," 
not accepting for them the modern and broader term "schools of religion." 
It was, in short. John Davenport's purpose, as a means of perpetuating in un- 
diminished strength the peculiar religious sect which he represented, to es- 
tablish a college for the training of young men in the doctrines of the Calvinistic 
church, in order that they might become orthodox preachers of that faith in 
the churches of the colonies. 

With the modern Yale before our view, we may scoff at the narrowness 
of that idea. We wonder not and we cai-e little that it failed. But we should 
not forget that though it failed, though John Davenport left the seeming wreck 
of his church-state with his college plan even more in ruins than his state, he 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 21 

Aad planted seed which bore the fruit that now we see. There was to be a 
college, and in spite of everything, it was to be in New Haven. 

II 

We may recall that there was with the Davenport party one Edward 
Hopkins, who had married Anne Yale, sister of Elihu. When Theophilus 
Eaton had spied out the goodly land of Quiunipiac, but suspected that it was 
under the jurisdiction of the Hartford colony, he sent Edward Hopkins from 
Boston to Hartford to secure a title to the site. But Hopkins did not return, 
and seems for some time to liave neglected to write. He found Hai'tford very 
much to his liking, we may judge, for remaining there, he waxed wealthy. And 
Eaton went it alone without any title except what he got from the Indians. 
Davenport, however, supposed Hopkins to lie friendly to New Haven, and so 
he proved to be. For when Davenpoi't had written to him in London, whither 
he had returned with liis wealth, in 1656 or 1657, asking him to help him 
financially with the collegiate project which he outlined, Hopkins's reply was 
to the effect that "if I understand that a college is begun and likely to be carried 
on, at New Haven, for the good of posterity, I shall give some encouragement 
thereto." 

But Edward Hopkins's death occurred within a year after that time, and 
instead of his inclination to "give some encouragement" to the Davenport 
college plan, his will, made previously, dictated the disposal of his Connecticut 
estate. It consisted, in the main, of £1,324 "and a negar." This was divided, 
for educational purposes, between "both grammar school and college." If the 
New Haven share had been realized at once, only about £331 would have been 
available for the college, obviously much too small a sum. Eventually, all that 
came to New Haven was used for the establishment of the Hopkins Grammar 
School, which was founded in 1660, and in existence continuously since. 

Thus was the original Davenport college plan sidetracked, mainly for lack 
of funds. But thus was what was in a certain sense a harvest of the Davenport 
seed realized. It was ineffectual as an educational provision, for at least the 
first few years. For it was inadequately endowed, and the colony's educational 
tide was at a low ebb. Meanwhile, came the Reverend James Pierpont as the 
first pastor's successor, and with him a new spirit into the plan to found a 
v'ollege in New Haven. 

Pierpont was a Harvard graduate in the class of 1681. Davenport had left 
in 1668 to close his disappointed days in Boston, and the seventeen years' in- 
terval between that and the coming of Pierpont was filled, first by the somewhat 
ineffectual Reverend Nicholas Street, who had been Davenport's assistant, 
then by several temporary preachers. Looking back on the failure of Davenport 
to achieve his ambition, one may regard without especial regret the fact that 
Pierpont was a man of different type. He was less forceful and obstinate : 
more winning and diplomatic. He may have been a less awesome preacher, but 
it is conceivable that "the common people heard him gladly" rather than 



22 A MODERN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN 

through compulsion. And he caught, in large degree, the Davenport idea as 
to the establishment of a college in New Haven. 

It was characteristic of James Pierpont, no doubt, that he did not set about 
to force the issue at once. It was nearly fifteen years after the coming of 
James Pierpont that the founding of a college reached an approach to actual 
realization, but even then he did not insist that it be at New Haven or nowhere. 
He realized that there was to be not a little difficulty, in the divided mind of the 
board of trustees, in settling the college anywhere in the New Haven region. 
The New Haven state, as we recall, had some time before been merged in the 
Connecticut colony, and there was a decided opinion in Hartford that the college 
ought to come in that direction. As a representative of the coast trustees Pier- 
pont was a leader in the successful effort to establish the college in the southern 
part of the colony. Later he compromised on Saybrook. But all along, we have 
excellent reason to believe, he held firmly the thought that it was in due time 
to come to New Haven. He did not quite live (his death was in 1714) to see 
the success of his purpose, but he lived long enough to make sure that it was 
to be. 

The events in the life of the Collegiate school outside of New Haven are 
interesting, and have also a constant bearing on its ultimate destination for the 
place of Davenport's original plan. The movers for the institution were min- 
isters, for though there may have been a modification of the strictness of pur- 
pose to make it a school for training in Calvinistic theology, the main thought 
was still to make it a training place for ministers. The church — and that 
meant the Congregational Church of the Connecticut sort — must have some 
source of supply. The New Haven colony was spreading out. New churches 
were being established. The call, then as now, was for men. The main de- 
pendence up to this time had been Harvard. But the sort of theology Harvard 
was teaching was being suspected in Connecticut. And anyway, Connecticut 
wanted its own school. 

There were strong men in the Connecticut churches of those days, several 
of whom were powers in the New Haven district. Others of them, as the pilots 
of the Collegiate school ship soon learned, and not entirely to their pleasure, 
were in the Hartford district. There was the able Timothy "Woodbridge of 
Hartford. Gershom Bulkeley of Wethersfield, though now well advanced in 
years, was still influential. Samuel Mather of the First Church of Windsor 
admitted himself "little and feeble," but he was mighty in council, neverthe- 
less. And Noadiah Russell of Middletown. born in New Haven, a classmate at 
Harvard of James Pierpont, seems to have been counted by the Hartford 
ministers on their side but to have had natural leanings to New Haven. There 
was a goodly group of ministers in Fairfield County, but the ones who chiefly 
concern us are Israel Chauncy of Stratford and Joseph Webb of Fairfield, 
the latter to be in the first list of trustees of the college. Stephen Buckingham 
of Norwalk, a younger man, was not to figure in the ca.se until later. 

New London County then had nine settled ministers, and all of them were 
concerned in the college plans. In Stonington and Lyme were brothers, James 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 23 

and Moses Noyes, Harvard 1659. Of the others Thomas Buckingham of Say- 
brook, Abraham Piersou of Killiugworth (New London County came over to 
meet New Haven County in those days) and Gurdon Saltonstall of New London, 
later to be the governor of the colony and to play an important part in the 
bringing of Yale to New Haven, are the ones who figure here. Besides, Samuel 
Andrew of Milford and Thomas Ruggles of Guilford, Samuel Street of Walling- 
ford and Joseph Moss of Derby were the chief participants in the events of 
those years when the college was a pilgrim and a stranger to New Haven. It 
is desirable to notice them by location, for that played an important part in the 
alignment for the coming struggle between the Hartford party and the New 
Haven party to get the college. 

Up to 1701, Hartford had been the sole capital, but in that year the legisla- 
ture of the colony held its first meeting in New Haven under the plan of making 
that the joint capital. This was not a change to the advantage of the Hartford 
group, but they nevertheless resolved to seek fi'om that legislature a charter 
for the college, hoping at the same time to secure an order for its location 
where they wanted it. But the members of the New Haven group were even 
better politicians. They did not purpose to trust the matter to the legislature. 
It was at James Pierpont's house in New Haven that they met and formed a plan 
to make their charter in advance of the sitting of the legislature, and submit 
it to that body for ratification, not for formation. They took counsel with 
certain eminent lawyers at Boston for the construction of a charter. But when 
they got the document which the distinguished Secretary Addington and Cap- 
tain Sewall had prepared for them, they read it and then, in the characteristic 
Connecticut manner, did as they pleased. It was too Harvard-like to suit them. 

"An Act for Liberty to Erect a Collegiate School" was the title of the bill 
which they presented to the legislature upon its assembling at New Haven on 
October 16. 1701. It was the document which clinched the action of a some- 
what imperfectly authenticated meeting held earlier at the house of James 
Pierpont's classmate and associate in this enterprise, the Reverend Samuel 
Russel of Branford. The meeting was about the first of October, and the 
action consisted, we may assume, in the formal giving of some books for the 
forming of a college. There is much haziness and some disagreement as to this 
foundation, but in general we may as well allow Branford 's claim to have been 
the place of the actual founding of the college. It was a foundation by the 
New Haven party and in the interest of New Haven. 

The matter succeeded with the legislature, the Hartford group not seeing 
fit to make any decided opposition. The act made no reference to a site, and 
the opponents of New Haven would seem justified in deciding that it was still 
anybody's college, as indeed it proved to be. The trustees, numbering ten, 
who were to attempt to decide that matter, were Noyes of Stonington, Chauncy 
of Stratford, Buckingham of Saybrook, Pierson of Killingworth, Mather of 
Windsor, Andrew of Milford, Woodbridge of Hartford, Pierpont of New 
Haven, Russell of Middletown, and Webb of Fairfield. It may be seen from 
the list that the majority evidently was against Hartford, but there was nothing 



24 A MODERN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN 

to do about it. It ought to be said in passing that James Pierpout, if he played 
any politics in the making of the list, had at the start omitted his friend, 
Russel of Branford, and had added three names of liis opponents, Woodbridge 
of Hai-tford, Mather of Windsor and Russell of Middletown, to the originally 
planned list. 

Little was said then, and less is remembered in these days, about a strange 
gift of Major John Fitch of Plainfield, a member of the upper house in that 
historic legislature, announced the same day the charter was approved. It 
consisted, we are told, of 637 acres of land in the far northeastern town of 
Killingly, together with a promise of glass and nails to build a college house. 
The college house was not built until some years afterward, at the end of a 
strife over site whose outcome may not have been to the liking of Major Fitch, 
so it would be interesting to know whether he made good his promise about the 
glass and nails. As the aforesaid Killingly was the site of Timothy Wood- 
bridge's farm, we may suspect that the gift was made in hope in behalf of 
the Hartfoi'd faction. It is worthy of emphasis as the first substantial offering 
to the property of the Collegiate school. 

The trustees lost no time in proceeding on the authority of the charter. 
Saybrook was chosen as a suitable place for their first meeting. The settlement 
there was an important one in those days, though its promoters' hopes of com- 
mercial gi-eatuess for it were deferred in fulfillment. It was at the mouth of 
that river which was a convenient highway to Middletown and Hartford and 
Windsor. It was midway of the coast between Stamford and Stonington. And 
these same considerations highly recommended it, in the belief of its residents, 
as a site for the college. At that first meeting, held on November 11, 1701, at 
the parsonage of Thomas Buckingham, the only representative of the Hartford 
faction was Noadiah Russell of Middletown. Two questions, having more con- 
nection with each other than may at first appear, were of first consideration. 
One was the choice of a rector, the other was the place of the college. The 
naming of the man and the designation of the place of his labors were not simple 
matters of arbitrary choice. The college had no buildings, and no immediate 
prospect of getting any. The rector must of necessity be a minister, and most 
of the ministers worth while were settled over parishes to whose welfare they 
seemed indispensable. However, the trustees attacked their task bravely. But 
the discussion developed difficulties that protracted it for three days. There 
seems to have been a determined effort on the part of the group from New 
Haven and beyond to take the college there in the first place, but the Reverend 
Noadiah Russell, sole representative at the meeting of the Hartford trustees, 
fought fire with fire. That is, be boldly advocated the taking of the Collegiate 
school to Hartford. Between these two positions a compromise seemed the only 
possibility, and doubtless Saybrook was that compromise. Trustee Buckingham, 
who with James Noyes of Stonington favored this, was of course not displeased at 
the prospect of such a compromise. 

So hopeless became the tangle that they deferred this question for a time, 
and attacked that of the rector. The introduction of the name of Abraham 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 25 

Pierson was not a surprise, and to agree ou him did not take long. He did not 
decline the offer, and it was at once taken for granted that he would accept. 
It was also taken for granted that he would consent to remove to Saybrook, and 
that town was agreed upon, still in the spirit of compromise, as the place. 

Nevertheless, Killingworth, which is now Clinton, was to be the real first 
place of Yale, or as the trustees could only know it, the Collegiate school. 
Abraham Pierson may have been willing enough to go to Say brook, but his 
people were not. That is, they flatly refused to release him from his pastorate. 
Yes, they would consent that he teach the young men in his great parsonage 
on the banks of the Indian River, but in Killingwoi-th he must remain. 

This seems to have been without any formal vote of permission by the trus- 
tees, though they left the matter in a somewhat uncertain condition. They seem 
to have had an inkling that the people of Killingworth would not consent to part 
with Mr. Pierson, and to have left the matter of his residence somewhat 
indefinite. In the following j\Iarch (1702) Rector Pierson began his arduous 
labors with one student, Jacob Ileminway of East Haven. So the first member 
of the college w^as fwrnished by the New Haven community. He was "all of 
the college" for the first half-year. They had Commencement for him, too, 
though it and those that followed it were, by desire of the trustees, very 
unpretentious affairs. Three young men entered Rector Pierson 's cla.sses 
for the next year. This began immediately after Commencement, for the idea 
of long vacations had not yet arrived. Getting an education was too serious 
a business to lie remitted for any part of the year. 

So the years went on in the fine old parsonage at Killingworth, where good 
work was done \inder the able teaching of the college's first president, iintil 
this order of things was suddenly terminated by the death of Rector Pierson in 
March, 1707. In that five years, eighteen young men were graduated with 
their first degrees at the Collegiate school. 

It seemed now that the old struggle over a site might begin over again. 
But Saybrook was the official place of the school, and the trustees of Saybrook 
and farther east resolved that it should become so in fact. Perhaps with a 
purpose to play for time, the New Haven and western trustees compromised 
again by the election of Reverend Samuel Andrew of Milford rector pro tern. 
He took the senior class for instruction to his parsonage, while the other classes 
were taken to the parsonage at Saybrook by Tutor Phineas Fiske, of the class 
of 1704. This was a bad arrangement, but for some reason or other it was con- 
tinued until, in 1714, the long fight over a site was concluded by the permanent 
choice of New Haven, and the Reverend Timothy Cutler was chosen as the 
third rector. 

The later years of the college's wanderings were very disappointing ones 
for its friends. For a considerable part of the time classes were held in three 
places, Wethersfield competing, as it were, with Saybrook and Milford. In the 
first place Tutor Elisha Williams held his ground, seemingly in behalf of the 
Hartford County trustees, almost in defiance of the authority of the main 
body. The work at Saybrook was unsatisfactory. Acting Rector Andrew at 



26 A MODERiN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN 

Milford did not euter with especial spirit into the college work, and the number 
of students dwindled. Especially was the lack of funds disheartening. There 
were no suitable buildings at any of the places, the teaching was poor and the 
whole situation was of faint promise. 

Ill 

The name Yale, it appears, was the magic token that was to win the college 
for New Haveu. The chain that bound the institution to the town of John 
Davenport was never broken from tlie time he resolved to have a college "for 
the better trayniug upp of youth in this town, that through God's blessing, 
they may be fitted for publique service hereafter, either in church or common- 
weale. " But there were foes, as we have seen, to the New Haven plan, and 
it seemed for a time that there were few friends. 

Three men had much to do with changing this condition. The first was the 
Reverend James Pierpont, whose unremitting but unostentatious purpose to 
win for New Haven has been noticed. The second was the Reverend Gurdon 
Saltonstall of New London, who was later to leave the pulpit for the chief 
magisti-acy of the colony. After lie was made governor, he took up his resi- 
dence overlooking the lake which now bears his name. His purpose to bring 
the college to New Haven seems to have been a matter of common sense rather 
than partisanship. He realized that New Haven was the place for it. In the 
end, lie was glad enough to use his influence for the ending of an interminable 
and unseemly squabble. The tliird friend was Jeremiah Dummer, the Mas- 
sachusetts colony's agent in London, later Connecticut's agent there, whose 
connection with the affair was to end in the enlistment of the aid of Elihu Yale. 

Dummer 's help was besought in 1711 by James Pierpont, who wrote asking 
liim what could be done in London to secure funds or books for the struggling 
institution. It was fortunate that Dummer was a very energetic, resourceful 
and persistent business man, with some influential connections. He called on 
several important men, and as the result, secured that valuable library of 
some 700 volumes which was sent to Saybrook in 1714. It was that same 
library which, later taken from Saybrook much against the will of those who 
took witli very poor grace the removal of the college from that town, was 
seriously impaired in the struggle. 

The somewhat brief connection of Elihu Yale with the enterprise makes a 
story not so well known, but of the keenest interest to New Haven. Jeremiah 
Dummer practically did it all, though it will always be in interesting specula- 
tion as to the influence which the Reverend Cotton Mather of Boston had in it. 
The idea was to have Governor Yale, who was extremely wealthy for those days, 
make a very substantial gift to the college, and in return have it named in 
his honor. Tt may have first occurred to the energetic Dummer — it would 
have been strange if it had not — but oddly enough, it seems to have been 
Cotton Mather who fir.st put it unmistakably to Governor Yale. In a fit of 
grudge against Harvard, the great Baston divine wrote to Governor Yale in 



AND EASTEEN XEW HAVEN COUNTY 27 

1717, eloquently presenting the need of funds for the college which was still 
trying to hold its own at New Haven, and adding: "Sir, though you have 
your felicities in your family, which I pray God may continue and multiply, 
yet certainly, if what is forming at New Haven might wear the name of Yale 
College, it would be better than a name of sons and daughters. ' ' 

Dummer followed this up energetically. Governor Yale was not, it appears, 
a very spiritually minded person. He had some sentiment for the Xew Haven 
community, for, as we have seen, his father had been with the Davenport party, 
and had made a fortune in the town. Later he went to Boston, where Elihu 
Yale was born. Early in life Elihu Yale went to London, was educated in good 
schools, and had gone to Madras with an East India Company adventure. Made 
governor of the trading post of Fort St. George, he had at the age of fifty 
returned to London with an almost fabulous fortune, gained, it is suggested, by 
means that would not have been approved even in the days when we counte- 
nanced "malefactors of great wealth." In London he was a typical man of the 
world, but at the time when Jeremiah Dummer approached him, almost seventy 
and looking forward with a sometimes thoughtful air. He was childless, which 
one needs to know to understand the Mather reference. 

This was the Elihu Yale with whom it was sought to make a trade of the 
honor of naming a college for a goodly bequest to it. Many a man of less com- 
parative wealth than he, in our days, has given much more generously for the 
honor of naming a college building. It is desirable to notice just what Yale 
did. He gave thirty or forty volumes of books in 1714. After Dummer had 
worked with him some four months after the receipt of the ilather letter, he 
donated to the college a consignment of goods to Boston whose value he esti- 
mated at £800, but which, when sold, netted £562, 12s. He also promised 
to give £200 a year to the college, and to make a settled annual provision for 
it after his death. He died in 1721, having given nothing further, and no pro- 
vision for the college was found in his will. 

But the .$2,833, or thereabout, which the college received from Governor 
Yale was the largest private donation it received in rather more than its first 
century. Its worth was multiplied because it came at the psychological moment. 
It came at just the time when it was needed to complete the college house 
which was building, and it clinched in New Haven the institution which Hart- 
ford was still trying to wrest from the setttlement at the mouth of the Quin- 
nipiac. New Haven and the university are well content with the name Yale, 
and concede that the old governor earned the honor he has received. 

So the dream of John Davenport, long deferred, was at length come true 
so far as the college was concerned. His mantle had been well worn by his 
successor Pierpont, and his ambition also was realized. The Hartford faction, 
W'hich had sought through the trustees, through the legislature, through the 
maintenance of a part of the college, unauthorized, at Wethersfield, and through 
a final attempt to take the institution to Middletown, to defeat that ambition, had 
lost at every point. Governor Saltonstall had been a valuable ally to the New 



28 A MODERN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN 

Haven trustees, and even the attempt to punish him politically for his supposed 
partiality ingloriously failed. 

The City of New Haven today is a strange contrast with that rural com- 
munity of less than 2,500 people which in 1720 rejoiced at the certainty that 
Yale had come to stay. It looks back over two centuries, however, with the 
realization that the history of the town and the history of the college have 
been as truly interwoven ever since as they were in those days of foundation 
struggles. But there have been times in the centuries when not all of the people 
have taken gracefully to the relationship. Those differences form a not uninter- 
esting part of the history of New Haven, and have a distinct bearing on 
modern New Haven. It will be worth while to trace them as a contrast with 
the better order which prevails today. 



CHAPTER IV 
THE YEARS OF DISCORD 

THE CRUDE STRIFE OF TOWN AND GOWN — ITS SEQUEL IN THE MISUNDERSTANDING 
AND SEPARATION OF THE COMMUNITY AND THE UNIVERSITY 



[t has often been remarked that New Haven, for a city of its size, remark- 
ably retained the oliaracteristies of the New England village. This is not neces- 
sarily, when thoughtfully expressed, meant in disparagement. It signifies that 
there is in the community a sort of intimacy which brings all its interests and 
constituents very close together. This was especially true of the last century, 
and it was in considerable degi-ee the cause of the rivalry at one time con- 
spicuously existent between New Haven and its college. Or, to use the common 
and threadbare phrase, it accounts in a measure for the class distinctions and 
strife of Town and Gown. 

It was impossible that the residents of New Haven should look on the mem- 
bers of the college as the common run of men. New Haven would never have 
earned the college if it had been able to escape a certain awe of the educated 
man, or a decided respect for the process. And so certain of the residents of 
the town cultivated and made much of the "scholars" at Yale. Coming from 
near or far, they were always able to command a place immediately on their 
arrival in the society of New Haven, a place which was, in most instances, 
denied to the young man who came in from the country to work in a bank 
or store. The result was jealousy, both among the non-college .young men who 
grew up in the city, and those who came in from the surrounding towns. They 
made common cause, and it is not surprising that they decided the "student" 
to be their enemy. 

For this condition of things one cannot wholly excuse the people who caused 
it. that is, the people who patronized the college men. But as years went on, 
there came into the situation another element which made it even worse. Even 
in the earliest days, perhaps more generally than in these days, the young man 
who could afford a college education was a favored mortal, set above his 
fellows. Often he had much money to spend. Certain of the townspeople 
noticed this, and the New England inclination to "make hay while the sun 
shines" came to the surface. It reached the point, at one time and with some 

29 



30 A MODERN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN 

persons, of making the most possible out of the students. They were over- 
charged, sometimes, it is suspected. At least there was a tendency to encourage 
them in the spending of much money. They came to realize this very clearly, 
and naturally resented it. 

We have, in brief, a condition in which the young "outlanders," as it 
seemed to the young men of the town, came under favor of special privilege, 
entered the best .society and monopolized all the girls, and generally carried 
themselves with an air of haughty superiority. On the other hand, the students 
deemed themselves the victims of greedy tradesmen and landladies and res- 
taurateurs, all of whom they despised. They set themselves, in .some cases, 
somewhat above the authority of the powers of law and order, and perpetrated 
the sort of pranks that were much the fashion in all colleges at some period in 
their growth. Yale by now has for the most part outgrown these things, which 
accounts for the better conditions. 

The situation thus outlined is nothing new. It has been developed in almost 
every juxtaposition of a college and a town from the very beginning. The 
youth who feels his growing learning is wont to be a supercilious, overbearing 
creature. If he is not that, he is likely to be so full of intensified animal spirits 
as to be a difficult ciuantity for a community to contain. New Haven simply 
had troubles in common with every college town, and it probably handled them 
no better than others have done. 

But they form an interesting and not uninstructive story, if studied for 
their reason. It needs to be remembered that there was in the last century, 
that is up to the last third of it, no organized form of athletics at the college. 
Some crude games there were, but they were played haphazard. The Nineteenth 
century was well advanced before football was played in any but the crudest 
way, and baseball as we know it came even later. Yet here was a considerable 
and growing body of young men, with all the surplus energy that young men 
have in these days. They were somewhat freed from the restraints of home, 
and the rigor of the early college discipline had been lightened. Something had 
to happen. It seems that something did happen. 

The story of the "Bully Club" is preserved only among rare Yale traditions, 
and New Haven people have forgotten it. It seems to be included mostly be- 
tween the years 1807 and 1843. One can only guess at the origin of the custom 
of choosing a class giant — there were giants in those days — as class Bully, 
and investing him with the great oaken club as his badge of office. It would 
have been a harmless custom enough, except that no pent up TJtica, that is to 
say, Campus, could contain such prowess. The Bully and his followers natur- 
ally went out to do slaughter among their natural enemies, the Philistines. 
These were the "muckers" of the early days. And there is a more or less 
misty tradition that these encoimters were not always matters of mere jest. 

Perhaps it was when Isaac T. Preston of 1812 wa.s Bully, perhaps it was in 
the reign of the no less renowned Asa Thurston of the class of 1816, that 
there was one of these fights in a notorious tavern on the water front in Fair 
Haven, which section of the town the students knew, perhaps from the company 




OAMaiiLLT ilALL, XAl.E LMVEKMTV. NEW HAVEN 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 31 

they sought there, as "Dragon." The Bully and his band on the one side, 
and an assorted bunch of oystermen, sailors and tough townsmen on the other, 
met there and fought to a draw, with some breaking of heads. There seems 
to have been a sequel soon after, when students bathing at Long Wharf were 
attacked by longshoremen, mariners and wharf rats, and badly worsted. 

There were a good many such fights in the early part of the century, and 
the legend of Bullyism is rich with glorious deeds. There is, for instance, that 
thrilling tale of how "three hundred students and their teachers held back 
a mob of three thousand (sic) townies. " But the faculty eventually came 
to the opinion that even such glory cost too high, and in 1840 abolished the 
Bull.y Club. It lived in defiance of the edict for three years longer, and then 
gradually disappeared. 

5'Iore definite, and '■also more serious, is the story of some mob outbreaks 
which owed no origin to the Bully Club. The "Medical College riot" of 1824 
was the first of these, and indicates the general spirit of disregard of the feel- 
ings of the townspeople on the part of the students, and of smouldering suspicion 
and dislike on the part of the townspeople. A gi'ave w'as found broken in 
West Haven Cemetery, and the recently buried body of a young woman was 
missing. Suspicion was at onee directed to the students of the Medical College, 
which was then located at the corner of Grove and Prospect streets. An excited 
crowd gathered on the Green, and resolved on stern action. One of the town 
cannon was secured, and the mob proceeded to the Medical College building. 
What might have happened if the militia had not received warning at the same 
time it is difficult to guess. The soldiers arrived before or soon after the 
crowd, and restrained the mob until a committee could be appointed to proceed 
with some order. A search of the building revealed the body beneath the pave- 
ment in the cellar. Then the excitement flared to its gi-eatest height, and it 
took all the force of the soldiers to prevent serious damage to the building. 
Eventually the mob went back to the Grftn, where a greater procession was 
formed and returned the body in state to its resting place in West Haven. It 
was many years before the effect of that incident passed off. One person was 
imprisoned, and' a stringent law was passed against such outrages. 

Then there was the familiar strife between the students and the members 
of the volunteer fire companies, most common about the middle of the century. 
They may have had their origin, at least they had their aggravation, from en- 
counters on the Green. This was all the athletic field the students had ; it was 
also the scene of the maneuvers of the fire companies. The latter were fond 
of contests to see which company could throw a stream of water highest, and 
Center Church spire was a favorite target. If the students chanced to be hav- 
ing on the Green at the same time one of their crude games of football, it is 
easy enough to imagine how an encounter started. The hose was dragged 
across the football field ; perhaps its holders were not careful to keep the streams 
of water from playing on the players. In retaliation, ready knives would now 
and then cut a line of hose. There were toughs among the firemen ; there were 
hot-bloods, some of them southerners, among the students. And this was not 



32 A MODERN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN 

so long- before the Civil War. Some of the students and perhaps some of the 
firemen carried pistols for just such an emergency, and one account has it that 
in the worst of these fights, in which tiie Bully Clnb may have figured, a fireman, 
William Miles, was shot dead. 

There is some definite account of what may have been the culmination of 
these encounters, on October 30, 1841. It was the day of the annual review 
of the New Haven fire department. This was one of the times when the hose 
playing and the football playing clashed, and the students were worsted. Later 
in the day they retaliated by interrupting the firemen's banquet, which was in 
the basement of the old State House. They were driven off after a fight. Next 
night some students broke into an engine house near the college and injured the 
apparatus, for which prank the college authorities had to settle roundly. 

On March 17, 1854, occurred a battle, fully as serious in its way, in which 
the firemen were not, as organization, concerned. That began, as many lesser 
troubles did in later years, with a row at a theater. After "breaking np the 
show," a crowd of townies followed the students up the street to the campus. 
The latter barricaded themselves in South College, where they were besieged 
all night liy an angry and increasing mob. Two cannon were brought from 
somewhere, and those operating them were earnestly besought to "blow up the 
college." But for the interference of the police, who must by this time have 
begun to feel that the matter was going too far, there might have been some 
explosion of gunpowder, and doubtless somebody would have been injured 
thereby. As it was, there were heads and bones injured by stones and brick- 
bats, and the leader of the town mob, one Patrick O'Neil, barkeeper and general 
trouble maker, was stabbed through the heart by one of the students, .said to 
have lieen a senior from Mississippi. 

These are illustrations of the more serious of the encounters, mostly in the 
first half of the last century. The intensity of the rivalry waned somewhat as 
the century drew near its close, though the feeling was always there. The 
townsmen seem to have lost interest, somewhat, in keeping it up. They began 
to sense the fact that there were students and students. Some of them even 
realized that the part of the college which went abroad from the campus making 
trouble and giving Yale a bad name was only a small rainoritj' of the whole. 
This minority kept busy, however, and passed on its traditions. It frequented 
the town dance resorts — New Haven had some choice ones in those days — and 
was usually able to find something there with which to lubricate trouble. It 
tried, on occasion, usually after an athletic victory, to run the theaters. This 
does not refer to the "Football Nights" at the Hyperion, which wei'e peculiar 
institutions, thoroughly enjoyed by those who took them in the proper spirit. 

It was long the custom, when Yale beat Harvard or Princeton in the annual 
football game, to celebrate the event by special services not down on the program 
of the Hyperion performance of that particular Saturday night. After a few 
experiences, the managers learned that it was desirable to book for that night 
some light and gladsome show, such as a musical comedy. What it lacked in 
entertainment the joyous students would supply. They usually bought the 




!ii.M>i:ii 



: HALL, YALE UNIVERSITY, NEW HA\]':N 




YALE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY. NEW HAVEN 



34 A MODERN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN 

eneourageinent to the educational' institution as it was to the church. It was 
taken for granted, then, that there nuist be no taxation of college property. In 
the beginning there was no college property to tax, and it did not occur to the 
colonists that there ever would be. Little did they dream of the time when 
Yale University would own property approximating $15,000,000 in value, or 
have real estate holdings in area nearly equal to half of the original nine city 
squares. 

It was in the late eighties that Yale began to foresee the need of expansion. 
Her fiscal directors, knowing well the expense of buying property in haste 
and when the need for it was obvious, inaugurated the policy of quietly and 
unobservedly getting bits of real estate as favorable opportunity offered. This 
went gradually on for a number of years, until all at once the tax levying 
authorities of the city, in the midst of their struggle to meet increasing munici- 
pal expenses without raising the tax rate, awoke to the fact that Yale was a 
large holder of real estate on which it paid no taxes. The ancient antagonism 
easily magnified this, and soon there began to be talk that Yale had been long 
enough immune from taxes. Times had changed, they argued. The struggling 
little college had grown to a wealthy, money-making corporation. It had 
erected great and costly ))uildings. Its number of students had grown to over 
2,500, most of them paying high tuition. It was buying property for specula- 
tion, they contended, and receiving large rentals for it. It was constantly in 
receipt of enormous gifts, and all the while seeking more. 

These were the arguments, mostly of the undiscerning, who knew little of 
the history of the past or of the real facts of the present. They could be 
answered, but they would not listen to the answer. The faction grew of New 
Haven taxpayers who insisted that Yale ought to be taxed, and more than once 
the matter was taken to the Legislature. That body was always governed, how- 
ever, by those who saw the case in its proper perspective, and there never was 
any particular danger of a mea.sure to tax Yale going through. But there re- 
mained a party of New Haveners who insisted that the thing ought to be done, 
and there was a steady friction that had a tendency to gi'ow. 

There is something to be said about that matter, too, which is not wholly 
in condemnation of the faction bound to tax the college, superficial as its view- 
point was. The old dividing line between the college and the town was gradu- 
ally being erased by the progress of events and the change in the customs and 
character of the student body, but the college authorities themselves were, to 
put it mildly, missing glorious opportunities to help on the good work. There 
was a certain aloofness, if not an assumption of superiority, on the part of the 
conservative college circle, which did not help matters. It was beneath their 
dignity to reason out this matter of taxation with the people. If they thought 
there was danger of trouble, they were willing to argue before the proper body, 
but that was all. 

These modern mentors of the community through the college had some- 
what materially departed from the conception of John Davenport, stern old 
autocrat though he was, of a college in whose benefits every member of the 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 35 

community should share. So we find, in the closing years of the Nineteenth 
century, the university with a great equipment of instructors and buildings 
and historical, scientific and art collections, whose tremendous potentiality for 
benefit to others beyond the student liody was little shared by the public. There 
was a door of opportunity for those disposed to push, but it did not exactly 
stand open. 

There never was any justification for the argument that such an institution 
as Yale ought to pay a tax on its non-productive property (it always has paid 
taxes on its income-paying property). But it was eminently desirable that 
those responsible for Yale appreciate the fact that in holding some five million 
dollars' worth of property, as they did by the end of the century, free of taxa- 
tion, they incurred a large responsibility, and that the least they could do was 
to show some evidence of appreciatiou. Fortunately, there came a change early 
in Yale's third century of existence, as we shall see in the next chapter. 



CHAPTER V 
THE BEGINNING OF HARMONY 

THE NEW ERA IN THE NEW CENTURY AND THE EMERGENCE OP YALE FROM ITS CLOISTER 

The first year of the new century saw the beginning of a new era for Yale, and 
as well — though this was not recognized in the distinguished celebration — a new 
era in the consciousness of relation between Yale and New Haven. A notable 
feature of the Bicentennial exercises which marked October 20 to 23 of 1901 
at New Haven w-as the dedication of the group of Bicentennial buildings, and 
of these the most conspicuous was Yale's great music auditorium, Woolsey 
Hall. 

This new auditorium, seating near to 3,000 people, was to be for many years 
the largest assembly hall in New Haven. In connection with it, let it be re- 
membered, is Yale's great dining hall, also the largest building of its sort in 
the city, and destined to play an important part in the change. Naturally, 
the possibilities of these buildings were little realized at the first. It was 
expected that they would largely be used by the student body, and for great 
university and graduate gatherings. But there had been in existence for a 
number of years previous to this time an excellent organization known as the 
New Haven Symphony Orchestra. It has labored a.ssiduously for the perfection 
of itself in the production of good music, but it had received little encourage- 
ment in its labors. That is, there was no opportunity for the adequate produc- 
tion of its music before an audience of suitable size. 

Soon after the completion of Woolsey Hall began the annual series of eon- 
certs by this orchestra, and to this annual offering of the world's best music, 
competently presented, to some thousands of the people of New Haven and 
vicinity may be given the- credit for first breaking the ice between the university 
and the community. It was the beginning, moreover, of New Haven's awaken- 
ing to the fact that it had, through Yale, that wherewith to make it a national 
music center. 

There was also to be installed in Woolsey Hall the great Newberry organ, 
when it was erected, one of the largest instruments of its sort in the country, 
and in 1916 and 1917 to be enlarged to international magnitude. This also 
was a great attraction to the people, and they made the most of it. Later, as 
we may see, they had increasing opportunity. 

"With this impetus, the change was bound to come. The inherited animosities 

36 




VVOOLSEY HALL, YALK I "XI \KKSITV. XKW HA\'KN 




OSBOKN HALL, YALE IXIVERSITY, NEW HAVEN 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 37 

of a century were not overcome iu a minute, to be sure. But the expansion of 
the university would have had its inevitable result, perhaps, without the 
opening of Woolsey Hall. This is mentioned here chiefly as the milestone of 
the progress. The college that in the first two-thirds of the Nineteenth century 
found the "Brick Row" suificient unto its needs had been as well sufficient 
unto itself. Living its own cloistered life, it acquired a feeling of superiority, 
and that bred a reciprocal feeling of hate, which worked out a.s we have seen. Now 
the college suddenly realized that it was a university. At the same time it dis- 
covered that it had long since burst its shell. It was overflowing into New 
Haven, in spite of itself. 

This was true of the undergraduates of the college; it wa.s still more 
true of those in the other departments of the university. The scientific school 
had not then commenced to create a campus, and the members of the law, the 
medical and the art departments were compelled to live among the people of 
the town. About this time the members of the teaching force, who formerly 
had lived in a restricted area inhabited mostly by Yale faculty members, found 
that there were other parts of the spreading city possessing greater attractions. 
So they began to live "among people," as it were, and to take an interest in the 
things of real life. 

The city itself was becoming larger, better balanced, less provincial. It 
was beginning to realize that it had something besides Yale to boast as its 
possession, but at the same time to ti-uly realize the value of Yale. There was 
a better understanding on both sides. Unconsciously, perhaps, but surely, the 
people of twentieth century New Haven were beginning to know that they were 
destined to be one with Yale, and that Yale was destined, and had been for 
considerably more than two centuries, to be one with them. The ways in which 
this harmony has grown toward completeness, in the first two decades of this 
century, are now to be told somewhat more in detail. 



CHAPTER VI 
THE GOWN LAID ASIDE 

THE YALE BICENTENNIAL CELEBRATION OF 1901— THE PARTICIPATION OF YALE 
OFFICERS AND TEACHERS, GRADUATES AND UNDERGRADUATES IN THE RELIGIOUS, 
SOCIAL AND CIVIC LIFE OF NEW HAVEN. 

I 

It has been said that the Hieeiiteunial of tlie fouudiiig of Yale marked sub- 
stantially the beginning of the breaking down of the walls between Gown and 
Town. It seems as well to have brought to the leaders of Yale, because of its 
emphasis of the fact that New Haven and the college were destined for each 
other from the first, because of its new revelation of the unity involved in 
John Davenport's plan for a church-state-college, a consciousness of their one- 
ness with the community. For that reason the Bicentennial itself, as a part of 
the modern history of New Haven, has a place here. 

Whether we regard Yale as having been founded at Branford or Killing- 
worth or Saybrook, there is no getting away from the fact that the date is 
1701. For October of 1901, then, Yale prepared an impressive celebration. 
It was to be the great feast of Yale history, and to it many were bidden. They 
came in thousands. Considering how nnich smaller was the number of Yale 
graduates even as recently as that — the number increases now at the rate of 
almost a thousand a year, taking no account of deaths — it meant much that nine 
thousand came from near and far to attend the exercises of some part of the 
four days, October 20 to 23, inclusive. Over nine thousand, graduates and 
undergraduates, took some part in those exercises. From other collegiate in- 
stitutions and learned societies, from America. Europe and Asia, came three 
hundred and thirty-one representatives. Yale granted, to members of this 
group and others, more than sixty honorary degrees. It was by far the most 
distinguished group ever to receive Yale degrees, including John Hay, Horace 
Howard Furiu'ss, John La Farge, Archbishop Ireland, Charles Eliot Norton, 
Thonms Bailey Aldrich, Samuel L. Clemens, William Dean Howells. Marr|uis 
Ito, Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson. 

Sunday. October 20, saw a nota])le group of church recognitions of the 
occasion. In Battell Chapel the Rev. Joseph H. Twiehell of Hartford, dis- 
tinguished, loyal and favorite son of Yale, and a member of the corporation, 

38 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 39 

preached a historical sermon, and there were special services in Center, Trinity 
and United churches in honor of the anniversary. At 3 in the afternoon there 
were services, and later an organ recital, iu Battell Chapel. 

There were many special services at various points on Monday the 21&t, 
but the central event of that day to most Yale visitors was the torchlight 
procession, in which five thousand Yale men participated, from the campus 
through the streets of New Haven. All were in costumes representing the 
historic ages of the university, and carried torches and colored fire. The 
classes participating ranged all the way from 1905, then freshmen, hack to the 
veterans of 1844. The campus itself was alight with orange lanterns, and all 
about it great bowls filled with burning rosin lighted up the night. 

Tuesday night the undergraduates assumed command, and presented for 
the delectation of the gi-aduates, on a stage in a specially built amphitheater, 
scenes from the history of Yale. Open air performances of this sort were much 
less common than they have been since ; in fact, the distinction of having been 
the first to so present historical scenes is claimed for Yale on this occasion. 
" 'Neath the Elms" in veiy truth they gathered in the bright October night, and 
sang the good old songs of their times the while they waited for the preparations 
lietween the scenes. The finale of the occasion, when the 9,000 stood and sang 
the Doxology while the rockets and bombs burst overhead, caused one witty ob- 
server to remark that it was a typical Yale coml)iuation of "praising God and 
raising hell." 

Wednesday was the last, the great day of the feast, when such as were 
elected, either by being first at the doors or by some other means, attended 
the formal commemoration exercises. Woolsey Hall was not completed, and 
had it been, it could not have accommodated more than a third of those who 
participated in the other exercises. It was necessary to fall back on the 
Hyperion Theater, dear to many Yale men, whose capacity was much smaller. 
Thither at 10 o'clock went from the campus a distinguished academic proces- 
sion. In it were a President of the United States and a President to be, a 
secretary of state, a ju.stice of the Supreme Court, a premier of Japan, the 
presidents of nearly all the important American colleges, and eminent scholars, 
scientists, preachers, writers and legislators from all parts of the world. These 
were on the stage when the others reached the theater. Such of the gathering 
as could entered at the doors and found seats. Others, a fortunate few who 
knew the stage door, witnessed the sight and heard the exercises from the wings. 
It was on that occasion that Theodore Roosevelt said he had never yet worked 
at a great task in wliich he did not find himself "shoulder to shoulder with 
some son of Yale." This was in response to President Iladley's happ.y charac- 
terization of him as "a Harvard man by nature, but in his democratic spirit, 
his breadtli of national feeling, and his earnest pursuit of what is true and right, 
he possesses those qualities which represent the distinctive ideal of Yale, and 
make us more than ever proud to enroll him among our alumni." 

Til the light of events since. President Hadley's utterance to Professor 
Woodrow Wilson, as he was about to make him Doctor of Laws, has a lively 



40 A MODERN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN 

interest. "On you," he said, "who like Blaekstoue have made the studies of 
the jurist the pleasures of the gentleman, and have clothed political investiga- 
tions in the form of true literature, we confer the degree of Doctor of Laws." 
. It was in the course of these Bicentennial exercises that many of Yale 's dis- 
tinguished graduates presented addresses and literary and musical contribu- 
tions to make the occasion one memorable in literature and art as well as in 
history. Donald G. Mitchell's classic dedication of Woodbridge Hall, to be 
the university's executive building among the Bicentennial group, was one of 
them. This veteran graduate of Yale (1841), "Ik Marvel" to two generations 
of the lovers of letters and nature, to be beloved of other generations to come, 
was near the close of his earthly career, but his contribution lacked neither 
force uor merit. Then there were Edmund Clarence Stedman's poem, "Mater 
Corona," read by himself. Professor Goodell's Greek ode, the singing of 
Professor Parker's "Hora Novissima," and a concert by the Boston Symphony 
Orchestra. 

Professor Canby, in his excellent article in the Book of the Pageant, sees 
the moral effect of all this as a great service to Yale, and he is right. But as he 
puts it, the manner of that great service proved the awakening of the men of 
Yale to a sense of their actual relation to New Haven. The form of it, in his 
words, has a definite bearing on the entrance of these men of Yale, in the period 
immediately following the Bicentennial observance, into the life of the commu- 
nity. "The great service," as he puts it, "was not the mere assemblage of 
national leaders in New Haven, nor a reunion of college classes on an unpre- 
cedented scale, nor the dignified Bicentennial group of buildings then dedicated 
as a la.sting monument, nor even the splendid impulse toward development along 
true university lines thus given to Yale and renewed continuously since. It was 
rather the realization of the historic past of Yale and her associated dignities, 
the opportunities and the responsibilities thereof, which then came first with 
emphasis to the college generations in whose hands the future of the Uni- 
versity was to rest. Beneath the excitement of the Bicentennial week, and beyond 
its pomp and ceremony, was the consciousness of an institution that was more 
than stone and mortar, more than endowment, more even than men ; a trust of 
inestimable dignity, a heritage of ideals, and a name commanding veneration 
as well as love. Much of what Yale seemed to demand of that generation has 
been realized; much more remains to be achieved. But the sense of historic 
continuity once aroused is powerful upon the future. It tempers pride by 
responsibility ; it makes loyalty self-confident, yet modest because aware of the 
high examples of the past. Yale has been less provincial, less tamely conserva- 
tive, more earnest and more mindful that lasting tenure comes from enduring 
service to the state, since the awakening of the Bicentennial. ' ' 

The fact that these thoiightful words were written fifteen years after that 
event, and by a man who has evidenced a true consciousness of his place in the 
greater eommunitj% makes them the more significant. 




ST. ANTIid.W HALL, \.\\.K rXIX' KKSIT V. NKW HA\EN 



42 A MODERN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN 

The participation of Yale leaders in New Haveu life took a more practical 
turn, as men reckon practicality. We find Y^ale professors serving as citizens 
of New Haven on the municipal boards, with every willingness to aid in the 
direction of efficient and clean government. Such cases as that of Prof. Edward 
B. Reed on the Civil Service Board and of Prof. Herbert E. Gregory on the 
Board of Education are instances of the readiness of Yale to serve in this field ; 
instances, as well, of the wisdom in selection of some of the mayors. The experi- 
ments, if such they might be called, did not always result in the highest suc- 
cess. In every case of failure, it may be said with confidence, this was due 
to the unwillingness of the town members of the boards to meet the ideals of 
the Yale men. There was something more in the way than the remnants of the 
antagonism. Generally this was "practical polities," a game the Yale men 
were slow in learning to play. 

Mention of Yale leaders in New Haven life would be injustice if it failed to 
include the service of Prof. William B. Bailey in social work through the Organ- 
ized Charities. Coming into that work to fill a temporary vacancy, late in the 
first decade of 1900, he applied to this force for the betterment of New Haven the 
mind of a trained social scientist, the genius of an unusually able organizer. He 
brought it up to its name. He co-ordinated, standardized, made systematic and 
effective, the whole work of relief in New Haven. He was never lacking in 
human sympathy, but he eliminated maudlin sentiment. Most of all, he made 
need and merit the basis of mercy, and sternly discouraged fraud. Through 
him those with hearts of sympathy and either the means to give or the will to 
work, were assured that their gifts and their labors were effectively applied 
when really they were needed. It is an achievement well worthy to stand 
among the important events in New Haven's progress. 

The renaissance of the Chamber of Commerce, soon after the beginning of 
this Bicentennial period, included many Yale leaders in a most definite way. 
As citizens of New Haven, professors and instructors and officers were reached 
by the active membership campaign. They found themselves working at a 
common task with citizens of New Haven whose ac((uaintanee they had not pre- 
viously made. They discovered the community in a sense they had not under- 
stood before. They found problems to solve which appealed to their best ability 
and knowledge — not infrequently their special knowledge. There were great 
modern tasks to be done in New Haven, and here was a wonderfully equipped 
and modern university to do them. They had the conscioiisness of unity of 
interest between the community and the college; they were about to apply 
it. So we have such undertakings as the scientific suppression of the smoke 
nuisance; the attacking of New Haven's peculiar sewage disposal problem; the 
elimination of the mosquito pest. There was created a .system of co-operation, 
through the Chamber of Commerce, between the university and some of the 
factories of the city, for the application of efficiency methods, for the improve- 
ment in various ways of the conditions of employes. 

These are glimpses of what was happening. The progress was slow, the 
benefit sometimes nebulous. But the idea was forming. The leaders of Yale 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 43 

were living Uie life of the city. They were making its problems their own. 
They were, in many ways l)esides their participation in the social service of 
Lowell House social settlement — an institution, by the way, in whose progress 
Yale idealists had from the first a definite part — carrying into practical appli- 
cation its motto and inspiration, 

"Not what we give but what we share, 
For the gift without the giver is bare." 



CHAPTER VII 
THE DOOES THROWN OPEN 

THE SUNDAY OPENING OP THE YALE SCIENTIFIC AND AET COLLECTIONS AND THE 

WELCOME TO WOOLSEY HALL YALE's INVITATION OP THE PEOPLE TO HER 

ATHLETIC FEASTS 



But something still was lacking to bring consciousness, both to Yale and to 
the people of the New Haven family with which it dwells, of their reciprocal 
relation. To the many Yale was still a thing apart. The advantages of Yale, 
as they saw them, were only for the favored few who entered the gates on 
payment of an admission fee, as it were. There was the great university plant, 
with its multiplying buildings, seen only by some who entei'ed through the 
invitation of Yale friends. There was Peabody Museum, with its wonderful and 
growing natural history and scientific collections, open to the public on week 
days, but at hours when only the few could avail themselves of the opportunity. 
There was the Art School collection, containing some of the rarest and most 
instructive art of the nation, having especial value for the people of New Haven 
and Connecticut, restricted in the same way. There was Woolsey Hall and its 
musical offerings, to be sure, but aside from the Symphony Orchestra concerts, 
providing little of a popular nature, and always with a substantial admission 
fee attached. There were Yale's athletic games, but there were restrictions, too. 
Their managers did not for a long time awaken to the need and advantage for 
them of catering, so to speak, to the New Haven public. In a word, something 
needed to be done to popularize Yale. 

And this was not wholly because the community needed Yale. It was getting 
along very well by itself, it believed. It had its own music, its own amusements, 
its own education, its own athletics. Yale needed the public. The better under- 
standing still to be attained was what was to remove entirely the feeling of 
antagonism between New Haven and Yale, and make tangible and fully real- 
ized the fact of their historical and destined unity. Yale must make a sacrifice, 
in some measure, to bring that about. 

There was no citizen of modern New Haven who saw this more clearly than 
did George Dudley Seymour, who soon after 1900 enlarged his already wide 
acquaintance with the people of his community by fathering the sometimes 

44 




>«s.^sea?.:i^::>f: 




SKULL AND BONES FRATERN^TY HOUSE, YALE UXIVKRSITV, Xi:\\- ]IA\I:N 




:^LROLL AND KEYS FRATERNITY HOUSE. YALK IXIYERSITY. NEW HAYEX 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 45 

despised but destined to be useful "city beautiful" plan. A loyal and under- 
standing son of Yale, he was also loyal and wise for New Haven. Now he 
attacked the problem of bringing in a better harmony between- the university and 
the town. His first j^roposal was very simple. Let Yale extend to certain parts 
of Sunday afternoons, in all but the summer months, the hours of public opening 
of Peabody Museum and the Art School. It was so simple a plan that it failed, 
at first, to create a sensation. 

But Mr. Seymour was not surprised or discouraged. He knew the forces 
of conservatism with which he had to contend. He knew that no suggestion takes 
in New Haven on its first application. So, gently but fii'mly, he returned 
repeatedly to the attack. He frankly put the suggestion to the ofScials of Yale. 
Through the newspapers he proposed the thing to the public. He I'eceived 
substantial backing from at least one newspaper, which kept the matter before 
the public insistently until the battle was won. 

For it was won, and sooner than might be expected, perhaps. In 1908 Yale 
University formally announced that it would, beginning with November, open 
the museum and the Art School on Sunday afternoons from 2 :30 to 5. It may 
perhaps be suspected that tlie uuiversity did this more from the motives which 
influenced the "unjust judge'' than out of faith that there would be a response 
from the public sufficient to justifj- the concession. Even Mr. Seymour and 
those who were with him in the endeavor were weak in the faith, at first. But 
the newspapers did their part in telling the public of the innovation, and men- 
tioning the hours of the openings. Some of them went further, editorially, by 
pointing out the significance of the change. The result was such as pleasantly 
to astound Yale and cordially to strengthen the faith of those who had worked 
for this change. The public responded in an intelligent, not a spasmodic manner. 
Those who came were not mere curiosity seekers. The response was steady, 
appreciative, not sensational. The first year the average number of visitors to 
the two exhibits on Sunday afternoons was not far from two hundred, and the 
attendance was well maintained until the end of April, when the university 
judged it wise to end the sea.son. This was some four months longer, there 
is reason to believe, than some of the officers had believed the "fad" would last. 

There -was some anxiety on the part of those who had promoted the plan to 
see whether Yale would remember to resume the arrangement in the following 
fall. To tell the truth, they did not trust entirely to Yale's memory. And the 
Sunday openings were resumed that season, with the definite announcement that 
they would continue to April. They have continued since, each season up to the 
present writing. The results have eminently justified the continuance. Tlie 
New Haven public has steadily used these exhibits for instruction, not for 
curiosity. 

Soon after the first opening, the opportunity was enlarged by adding the 
Steinert collection of musical instruments in Memorial Hall, and later the 
School of Religion's archaeological exhibits were also opened on Sunday 
afternoons. 

A few years after the completion of Woolsey Hall and its organ, Harry B. 



46 A MODERN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN 

Jepson, son of New Haven's loved old music master, Prof. Benjamin Jepson, now 
Battel] professor of music at Yale, inaugurated the custom of Monday afternoon 
organ recitals, for which a small admission was charged. These were enjoyed by 
many hundreds of music lovers, but their hour was such that the attendance was 
always limited. Joining in the movement of opening Yale's doors to the larger 
public. Professor Jepson now introduced two popular Sunday afternoon organ 
recitals in the season, one in the Christmas holidays, the other at Easter, both 
free to the public. These were from the start overwhelmingly attended, and 
Professor Jepson found it desirable, in a few years, to enlarge their- number, 
giving a series of recitals every Sunday afternoon through January and Febru- 
ary, in addition to the Christmas and Easter ones. It is needless to add that 
these opportunities were improved to the fullest extent. 

These results had opened the eyes of Yale's governors to the virtue of fellow- 
ship with the community. The result was the adoption of the policy of offering 
or granting the use of Woolsey Hall as a place, in general, for public mass 
meetings. Enterprises which moved for the common good, which called together 
large gatherings of the people, found the doors of the great assembly hall open 
for them. Conventions representing or interesting any considerable number of 
the people of New Haven or of a wider circle had only to ask to receive Yale's 
hospitality, and often it was offered. The dining hall was likewise opened to many 
great banquets, notably those of the Chamber of Commerce, where men of 
international reputation, presidents of the nation and publicists of large emi- 
nence, were among the speakers. Organizations of New Haven men and women, 
having occasion to gather for a banquet in greater numbers than any other 
banquet hall in town could accommodate, met around the tables of this noble 
banquet room, where the portraits of former presidents of Yale looked down 
on scenes such as the men in their lifetime had never dreamed of seeing. 

II 

The gates were open, but there was another important means by which Yale 
was "getting solid" with people who might never have entered through Peabody 
or the Art School or any of the doors of the great building at the corner of 
College and Grove streets. Yale athletics had a growing hold on the New Haven 
public. Yale was the ideal, in sporting achievement, of the average young man 
of the town. Yale games, whether in baseball or football, have always had an 
attraction over games by other than college players. The attendance at these 
games constantly increased, but the Yale athletic management set out to popular- 
ize them still further. It placed the prices on its early season games at a point 
attractive to the public, and the public responded. Many a "Brown game," 
even before the days of the Bowl, had an attendance rivaling that of a Yale- 
Princeton game in the 'nineties. 

But not all of this attendance was always paid, to the credit of Yale. Some 
years liefore the new field was developed or the Bowl built, in the earlier days 
of the regime of Everard Thompson as the manager of the Yale ticket depart- 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 47 

ment, the plan of offering football tickets as rewards of merit in the New Haven 
High School was inaugurated. On a basis which the teachers arranged, each 
week a certain number of pupils who had shown an approved proficiency in 
scholarship or effort were given free tickets to the Saturday game. The number 
rose, at one time, as high as two thousand at a game, and every son and daughter, 
we may easily imagine, was a loyal "■rooter" for Yale. It is easy to see the 
pace at which Yale's friendships grew liy this process. 

• Then there was the "Brown game," which became an annual institution in 
New Haven. Each year, the week before the big game with Harvard or Prince- 
ton, Yale played the team from Brown University. That enterprising institution 
at Providence had achieved a substantial reputation by sending up for two suc- 
cessive years in the early nineteen hundreds a team whicli very neatly "trimmed" 
Yale — more of a feat at that time than it was a decade later. There were many 
New Haveners, in and out of the college, who liked to watch that game. Inci- 
dental mention might be made of the "Whiffenpoofs, " a unique body of Yale 
vaudevillians, who about this time took it upon themselves to provide burlesifue 
entertainment in the intermissions of this jiarticular game. 

New Haven always saw this game. Youthful New Haven also saw it, because 
of another pleasant custom. It began witli Judge Albei't McClellan Mathewson, 
who had a sort of George Junior RepulJic organization of boys which he called 
the Good Government Club. Many of them were boys unlikely to have money to 
spend to see a football game. He put the ease liefore the Yale athletic authorities, 
and they agreed to admit free, in a bod.y, as many boys as Judge Mathewson 
would sponsor. Naturally, the plan met great favor with the boys, and naturally, 
too, the number of those willing to come in under the judge's charge grew 
yearly. Starting with a hundred or a little over, it increased by the addition 
of newsboys, members of boys' clubs and schoolboys in general until the group 
down at one end of the stands imnibered at times 1,500. Their loyalty and their 
enthusiasm heightened the enjoyment of the game alike for players and 
spectators. 

There was still a drawback, in the athletic department. New Haven, as its 
fellowship with Yale increased, became increasingly desirous of seeing the "big: 
game" which was the climax of the bootball season. But there was no more room 
cm the old football staiuls, then seating 35,000 at tlie most, than was required b.y 
the Yale multitude — that is, the graduates, undergraduates and their friends. 
Except as thej- borrowed applications for tickets, or as they were included in the 
invited groups. New Haven people were limited to a rapidly disappearing public 
sale of tickets. In the closing years of the old stand, there was no public sale. 

The long hoped-for football stadium, which turned out to be a Bowl, completed 
in time for the Yale-Harvard game of 1914, had offered another opportunity 
for the co-operation of Yale and New Haven. It was a great financial undertak- 
ing, and Yale offered New Haven money a chance to share in it. The offer was 
gladly accepted by many men who had no alumni connection with the college, for 
it included the privilege of subscribing each year for a certain number of 
tickets for the big game for each one hundred dollars cash subscribed for the 



48 A MODERN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN 

Bowl. In this way a considerable number of the men of New Haven's affairs 
came to feel a share in one of the gi-eat enterprises of the university, and came 
into intimate touch with one important feature of its life. 

The completion of the Bowl, with its initial seating capacity of 65,000, seemed 
to offer to everyone who desired it a chance to see the great game. Provisions 
had been made to extend 'the seat sale, not only generally to the New Haven 
public, but throughout the state. What was the consternation, then, of Mana- 
ger Thompson to find, as the time for the game approached, that he had appli- 
cations for tickets something like 25,000 in excess of the number of seats which 
even the great amphitheater would provide. Immediately some 8,000 extra 
seats were added, but eveu then the most heroic measui'es had to be adopted 
to keep the attendance within the capacity. Conditions somewhat similar pre- 
vailed in 1915. But in both years the management was loyal to New Haven. 
The Chamber of Commerce had expected a block of about 2,000 seats at the 
game which opened the Bowl, and it was not disappointed. In 1916 the pressure 
was even greater, but again the applicants "of the Chamber of Commerce were 
supplied. 

These are evidences of the degree to which the animosity between the college 
and the public in the Nineteenth century had changed to harmony in the 
Twentieth. There were many others, less obvious but even more important. The 
university had come to realize its relation and its duty to the community with 
which it was inseparably identified, and to do something about it. The community 
had begun to appreciate the honor and advantage offered by the existence of Yale. 
And there was to be a tangible demonstration of this relation which should 
attract the attention and enlist the participation of a great many who had not 
previously noticed. That was the Pageant of 1916, of whose details we shall 
proceed to learn. 



CHAPTER VIII 
THE SEAL OF THE UNION 

THE PAGEANT OF 1916, ITS PREPARATION AND HISTORIC CELEBRATION IN BATTELL 
CHAPEL THE GREAT SPECTACLE AT THE BOWL 



The "wedding" of New Haven and Yale took place when the trustees of the 
collegiate school, in session at New Haven on October 17. 1716, formally though 
not unanimously voted that the school, or college, should be established in New 
Haven. Preparations suitably to celeln'ate that wedding's two hundredth anni- 
versary began considerably earlier than October in the year 1916. The officers 
of Yale, indeed, had for several years realized that the event should have a 
unique celebration, and had begun their plans for one. 

Early in 1916. there was appointed on behalf of Yale a general committee 
consisting of Eli Whitney, chairman ; Edwin Rogers Embree, secretar.y ; Rev. 
Joseph Anderson and Mr. Otto Tremont Bannard of the corporation, and 
eighteen other members of the faculty and prominent graduates of Yale. The 
City of New Haven appointed a citizens' committee of thirty-eight members, of 
which flavor Frank James Rice was chairman. From these were chosen an 
executive committee, on behalf of Yale' of Francis Hartman Markoe, Edwin 
Rogers Embree, Howell Cheney. Frederick Blair Johnson and Prof. Clarence 
Whittlesey Mendell ; on behalf of New Haven of Mayor Frank James Rice, Vice 
Mayor Samuel Campner, Joseph Edward Hubinger, James Thomas Moran, 
Louis Ezekiel Stoddard, and Isaac Moses L^llman. 

Mr. Markoe, a Yale graduate with a considerable experience in similar under- 
takings, was chosen master of the Pageant — for the Pageant was to be the central 
feature of the celebration. His assistants were Prof. Jack Randall Crawford 
and Dennis Cleugh as stage manager. Prof. George H. Xettleton was editor 
of the Book of the Pageant. Pi'of. David Stanley Smith was chosen master of 
the music, and Miss Christine Herter was the artist of the Pageant. "Sirs. Dennis 
Cleugh was mistress of the robes, Frederick Blair Johnson was business manager 
and Charles Emerson Cooke director of publicity. 

Thus ofiSeered, the gi-eat undertaking was launched early in the year. The 
committees, and a number of guests representing various activities of the city 
which it was expected to enlist in the Pageant, met at luncheon in Memorial 

Vol 7—4 

49 



50 A :\IOUERN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN 

Hall early in the spring, and the plans for the project were presented in some 
detail. There was the most evident enthusiasm, and earnest pledges on the part 
of several of the most infiuential citizens to do all in their power to carry the 
project to success. Those pledges were faithfully kept. 

All spring, all summer, the committees and sub-committees, the pageant 
officers and their aids, labored unceasingly. There was to be an elaborate pro- 
gram — religious, scholastic, historical, literary — covering the three days of Octo- 
ber 20, 21 and 22, but the great day was to be that of the Pageant, Saturday, 
the twenty-first. Waiving the exact date of the anniversary, Saturday was 
chosen because of the number of school children it was proposed to enlist in 
the production, and because of the better opportunity the day afforded for the 
attendance of the people. It was proposed to have about 7,000 participants in 
the various scenes of the Pageant. Different departments of the university, 
several of the graduate classes, alumni organizations of other colleges, the Gov- 
ernor's Foot Guards, the Grand Army of the Republic, the Sons of Veterans, 
several chajiters of the Daughters of the American Revolution, the Young 
AVomen's Christian Association, the New Haven Caledonian Club, several lodges 
of the Order of Red Men, the Naval Militia, the Spanish War veterans, the 
Yale Battery and several other organizations, besides a large number of unat- 
tached individuals, were represented in the cast. There was an endless detail 
of costumes to be provided, and the rehearsals for the play constituted, when 
the number and variety of the participants is considered, a tremendous under- 
taking. There were many discouraging features. But the committee for the 
university and the citizens worked faithfully on. And the end crowned their 
lal)or and justified their faith. 

The third week in October of 1916 promised to be much like other mid- 
autumn weeks in our uncertain New England climate. As the crowning require- 
ment to the Pageant's success was good weather, its developments, weather- 
wise, were somewhat anxiou.sly watched. The opening feature of the program 
was the repetition of John Jay Chapman's Florentine masque, '"Cupid and 
Psyche," which had been given at the Art School in June, and for that the 
weather did not so much matter. It was a somewhat severely classical and dis- 
tinctly college event, but as it was given in commodious Woolsey Hall, it had an 
audience containing many of the townspeople. There was some fear as to how the 
somewhat delicate and in a sense parlor event would fit into massive Woolsey Hall, 
but if it may be judged by the enthusiasm of the audience, it was in every respect 
a success. It was produced by ladies of New Haven, and though wholly of 
Yale authorship, was in its nature especially appropriate to celebrate the union 
of the college and the town. 

Friday afternoon had been rainy, and Saturday forenoon continued the 
storm. Up to mid-forenoon, the prospect was decidedly unpromising. The 
hearts of the thousands to whom the Pageant meant so much were as gloomy as 
the weather. There had been a dress rehearsal of the spectacle on the previous 
Saturday, which had raised many hopes. But so much depended on the weather ! 

Meanwhile, there were some historical exercises on Saturday forenoon. In 




YA\A-: Srllddl, OF ItKLK.KiX. NKW ll.WI.N 




BATTELL CHAPEL, YALE UNIVERSITY. XEW HAVEN 



AND EASTEKN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 5] 

the excitement and anxiety, they were overlooked by too many New Haven 
people. Battell Chapel was entirely sufficient to accommodate all who went to 
hear them. It was an important and remarkable program, worthy of mention 
in some detail. 

Most gracefully, as is his wont. President Hadley opened the exercises with 
his tribute, on behalf of the university, to New Haven. Quoting at the start 
from Jeremy Duunner's letter to Governor Gurdon Saltonstall, in which he 
felicitated New Haven on the happy consummation of the luiptials. and mentioned 
Elihu Yale's satisfaction thereat, President Hadlej- paid tribute, first to the 
ministers whose unflagging zeal and loyalty to New Haven had so much to do 
with bringing it about, and second to the community whose real substance 
deserved and won the institution for its own. He praised the hard work and hard 
cash of the New Haven citizens by which they enabled John Davenport the 
younger to exult in that realization of which the first John Davenport was 
denied, and closed by saying: 

"To the descendants and successors of those that builded the house, no less 
than those that first taught therein, high honor and cordial congratulation 
ai-e this day due." 

Of the responses by the city the first was, appropriately, by the lineal de- 
scendant in office of John Davenport and James Pierpont, the twentieth century 
pastor of Center Church on the Green. Discerningly, appreciatively, did the 
Rev. Dr. Oscar E. ilaurer make reply. Gracefully he referred to the ambition of 
his first predecessor to be the founder of a college in New Haven, and to the 
inibreakable bond, none the less close and firm because it was left to those who 
came after John Davenport to realize the fulfilment of his prophecy, between 
Center Church and Yale University. But he spoke as well for all the churches 
of New Haven and Connecticut, which united in rejoicing at the union and its 
anniversary. "Yale and the church," he said, "are united in a common destiny, 
their mission is a common mission ; and so, Mr. President, speaking for the 
churches of New Haven and Connecticut, deeply thankful for all the blessed 
ties that have bound us together in the past, I pledge to you our continued 
devotion and loyalty for the years that lie ahead, and the assurance of our 
fervent prayer that Yale and the Church may together go on and ever on in 
their holy mission of Truth and Light." 

Mayor Frank J. Rice was not able to represent the city on that occasion. 
As we shall see, his active work for the city he loved was over, and he was 
compelled to content himself with watching from the distance the co^j^summation 
of the celebration in which he had taken so great an interest. Samuel Campner, 
acting mayor, responded for the city in his place, and did so with an under- 
standing eminently commendable. He rejoiced in the older history of Yale, 
that part of it which belonged to the era before New Haven. But he saw it now 
as only a background to the new, the greater Yale which was largely liecause 
of the union now being celebrated. He made clear the existence of the spirit 
of entire harriiony between the New Haven which is and the Yale which is, and 
looked hopefully forward. "May the life of Yale and of New Haven," he hoped, 



52 A MODERN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN 

"flow together through the centuries of the future as one life, one unit, one 
liody politic — tlie einbodiinent of one idea — the expression of the lofty, pro- 
gressive, God-fearing and God-serving spirit of free America." 

Fittingly closing the exercises was the scholarly, complete historical address 
of Prof. Williston Walker. With the historian's sense of proportion, with the 
understanding of the scholar, with the eloquence of one baptized with the spirit 
of the hour, he portrayed the development of two hundred years. Going back 
of the two century period, however, he showed on what foundation of vision and 
sacrifice and holy ambition of the founders was laid the structure raised in New 
Haven. Dramatically he told of the struggles of those years ; with what a battle 
the college was won for New Haven. Feelingly he drew the picture, touching 
in the brighter lights of the understanding which the discerning had from the 
first of the proper relation between the college and the community, of true 
kinship of the mother and daughter — New Haveu and Yale. 

"So today," he concluded, "as we commemorate the two hundredth anni- 
versary of the settlement of Yale in New Haveu, it is with gratitude toward 
those who in the da.ys of small things made this much possible. They had their 
abundant perplexities, their contests, their discouragements. They had, also, 
an unconquerable faith, and a courage adequate to their needs. They builded 
well, and we have entered into the fruit of their labors. Nor can we forget the 
noble succession which for two centuries, in city and in university, has carried 
on their work, building fairer and nobler year by year, till we have the New 
Haven and the Yale in which we now rejoice. What the future may have in 
store none may know : but of this we may be assured, that Yale and New Haven 
will continue in inseparable connection, in growing helpfulness each to the 
other, and in increasing appreciation of the common advantages of their associ- 
ation. May the memories of the last two hundred years he perpetuated and 
strengthened in the association and growth of Yale and New Haven for genera- 
tions to come." 

II 

The heavens smiled on such faith, such brave and thoughtful words. As the 
historical worshippers came from Battell Chapel, they found that the October 
storm h'ld been transformed to October beauty. Not soon will New Haven, 
and especially those who participated in the exercises, forget the beauty of that 
afternoon. And who did not participate? Seven thousand men and women, 
boys and girls, re])resenting all phases of the ancient and modern life of New 
Haven and Yale, were in the moving life, the historical depiction, the glorious 
picture and color, Qf the Pageant. And every one had friends. All sides of the 
life of the city had been touched in the preparation. All the schools had been 
drawn upon. A large number of the societies and organizations of the city had 
been woven into the story. No wonder New Haven noticed. 

It was such a plot as Shakespeare would have coveted. Here was to he told 
a story of two centuries rich with drama, touched with humor, pathos, sentiment, 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 53 

tragedy. Far back of the beginnings of New Haven the writer had gone for his 
prologue, to that 1485 when the union of Margaret, daughter of lenkyn ap levau 
to Ellis ap Griffith of Cwyddelwern laid the foundation of the house of Yale. 
Through the colonial times, with their wealth of romance and fascination of 
history he had built the beginning of his story. He had not missed the thrill 
and adventure and inspiration of the Revolutionary days. The strifes and the 
sacrifices and the abundant human interest of the early Nineteenth century 
were faithfully and eft'eetively portrayed. And there was a wealth of modern epi- 
.sode to lead up to the climax, the bright realization of the light and truth of the 
ancieiit ev'eriastiug union. 

Such was the play. And never playwright had such a playhouse. "Some 
genius," wrote a chronicler for the Yale Alumni Weekly, "had foreseen the 
effects which might be gained in that large amphitheater, the Yale Bowl, on 
a clear autumnal day." It was not with fear or misgiving that the management 
had accepted the Bowl as the place to stage such a spectacle. Already its visual, 
its accoustie, its spectacular qualities had been tested in football and Greek play 
and grand opera, and on each trial it had surprisingly responded to every 
requirement. Built for football, Iniilt only with the thought conveniently to 
gather, comfortably seat and safely disperse mighty multitudes of people, it 
had proved to have qualities for conserving and reflecting sound not possessed 
by any structure of its sort in America. Now, of course, its qualities for dis- 
playing a spectacle were to be especially tested. 

]\Iany were the misgivings with which fond parents and sensitive spectators 
had looked forward to this afternoon. The costumes which made that feast of 
color were flimsy things, poorly qualified for resisting the chill blasts and threat 
of frost which the afternoon of the third Saturday in October might easily pro- 
vide. And there might be a nip and an eagerness in the air which would make 
sitting for three hours to view a pageant less than a thing of joy for those in 
the least sensitive to cold. In strange and thrilling measure these fears were 
allayed, these misgivings made vain. It was such an October afternoon as even 
that rare month might not furnish twice in a dozen years. Out of a sky without 
a cloud, through an atmosphere erystally clear, with only just a relieving breeze, 
shone the autumn sun. It brought out at their best its spectrum colors, multi- 
plied to countless shades that the rainbow never knew, in the costumes of the 
participants. Over that rich sward where a month later the dun-clad cohorts 
of Harvard and Yale were to race and tear in one of the great games of the 
century — and crown the Bowl with a Yale victory to remember — proceeded in 
measured dignity the appointed persons of the play. 

And over them bent the thousands. The Bowl has seen greater crowds. But 
50,000 of the friends of Yale and New Haven, gathered from near and far, with 
such a motive and for such a sight, is a multitude not to be despised. Its own 
color and variety, its life and its magnetic expectancy, completed the wonder 
of the occasion. 

It is two o'clock on that never-to-be-forgotten afternoon, and though this 
is an amateur production, and one of the most difficult ever handled, Director 



54 A MODERN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN 

Markoe is ready. But before the gates are opened, there is a wondrous prelude. 
At one end of the great amphitheater, under a reflecting canopy, there is such an 
aggregation of bands as even music-blessed New Haven never had on one plat- 
form. And back of them is a chorus of 500 people. It is the Derby Choral 
Society — neighbors glad to share in the great service. Led by Professor William 
Edward Haesche, who has written the music, it launches into the stately numbers 
of Charlton ilincr Lewis's "Invitation to the Pageant."" Its opening words are 
fulfilled before the people, and seem to have been prophetic: 

October "s glory ripens to its close; 

The flaunting splendors fade ; yet still abides 
The warm sun. wizarding from brown to rose 

The bastioned refuge of the Regicides. 

And the eastern gates open, burst by a noise of trumpets. From out their 
portals comes a procession of the Middle Ages. Pages and bards and men-at- 
arms lead the way for maids and gentlemen and ladies in their gayest garb. 
For it is nothing less than the bridal procession of the fair Margaret. Forth she 
comes M'ith her knightly bridegroom, each riding upon a horse that seems to 
sense the ancient dignity of the occasion. It is the first glimpse of the glory of 
color that shall be. For on Margaret and her maidens, on pages and on the 
caparisoned horses, shines a blazonry of many hues that needs l)ut the dun 
garb of the men — so like, in this respect, to tlie modern wedding — to Itring out by 
contrast its magnificence. And so was Margaret wedded to the brave Ellis ap 
Griffith. So was the house of Yale founded. The romance, the imagery of the 
scene grip the beholder. 

But there is no lingering. This is only the prelude. The Pageant has not 
yet begun, and the play's the thing. As silently as they came the flashing cos- 
tumes are gone. The sorely tried nerves of the amazed modern New Haven 
horses are soothed again in the free air outside the echoing portals of the Bowl. 
And from another portal bursts a strangely different scene. Stifdy come Pastor 
Davenport and Governor Eaton, leading their party of pilgi'ims, weary from 
their long voyage, and muddy from their elimb up the red clay banks of the 
creek. With surprising promptness comes from another quai'ter a mournful 
procession of Quinuipiacs, and the scene shifts in fancy to the meadows of Morris 
Cove. Boi-ne on a litter is Shaumpishuh, sister of the Sachem Momauguin, 
sick unto death. The women wail their lament to the Great Spirit. The tribe 
dances its medicine dance. There is all this in the swift scene, and if one makes 
a little allowance for the ardor of the unpracticed young Indian actors, he gets 
the serious import of it. Still more life is injected by the sudden appearance of 
the war-painted Moh'awks — they are at their old game of demanding tribute. 

But the Quinnipiacs fear the death of the pestilence more than they fear the 
death of battle. They resist and overcome the tribute-seekers. Whereupon they 
note the presence of the pilgrims, whom they accept on faith at once as friends. 
The pilgrims give thanks for their deliverance from the perils of the sea, and 
for their friendly greeting. But Shaumpishuh cannot sui'vive, and the procession 
now takes up a real lament for the dead, and proceeds sadly out from the portals. 



2; 










56 A MODERN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN 

matter of fact, despicable things compared with the rich garb of the Foot Guards 
—figure again. It is a solemn scene. We are spared, of course, any attempt 
at the execution itself, but the grim preparations are there. We are glad, on 
the whole, when the scene vanishes through the portals. 

There is a richness of costume, especially feminine, in the scene representing 
the visit of Washington to New Haven after he became President. We have the 
men in stately grandeur. And Washington and his stafif ride well, assisted by 
one or two trick horses such as, probably, would greatly have annoyed the old 
general in his time. Then the field clears, and we are ready for another interlude 
— an Allegory of War and Peace. 

It was not the intention, evidently, to paint war in any attractive colors. 
These gnome-like figures, hooded and cloaked in brown, who come crouching 
in to the droning of dismal music, are the spirits of Starved Desire and Fear 
of Brotherhood. Others no more attractive follow, the warped souls of Dema- 
gogues and Self Lovers, and these unite to utter, in something like song, "The 
Wise Voice of the Old, Deep, Unchanging World." But the chorus strengthens 
by the addition to the Holy Servants of war's sacrifice, the Young Men Who Have 
Found Their Manhood. Presently join these the Contented Dead, and then 
the mothers who raise their boys to be soldiers, to speak in flippant phrase. 
There is weird and thunderous music, and Life's Wastrels cavort over the scene. 
The Noble Wives, the Old Men, the Calm Fathers and other Heroic Hearts follow 
in quick succession, chanting a solemn hymn. Then the music changes, a hush 
comes over the wild clamor, and sweet, calm, majestic, radiant Peace is there, 
with the little children in wJiite robes playing about her. The Rout of War 
falls back from the altar, the weary sufferers welcome Peace, and the air is rent 
with a shout that is greater than victory. Brimming over the rim of the Bowl 
pour down from all sides the processions of Peace — ^Youth and Dawn and Spring, 
waving blossoming branches and singing a song of the beauty of sweet nature. 
Summer, Day and Growth follow with golden boughs of laurel, singing their 
hymn of praise. Evening, Autumn and Completion sing an evening hymn, 
which merges in the one general chant of peace as all advance with their offerings 
of praise, and crown Peace forever. 

The opening scenes of the nineteenth century episode are in lighter vein. 
Well may the Town and Gown riots be treated lightly, for they are things of 
the past. They are nothing more than comedy, as presented. There is war, 
to be sure, between the firemen and the footballists, and there is some attempt 
to suggest what a terrible thing this might be, but with the machinery at hand, 
and the evident refusal of the actors to take the thing seriously, there is litlle 
to (k) but laugh. 

The Burial of Euclid, of course, is but a college prank. It proves to be no 
more than a fairly well rehearsed performance of the Whift'enpoofs. One 
wonders if the boys themselves realize how important a thing it was in its day. 
It is good fun, which serves fairly well to relieve the sobriety of what must be, 
in the main, a serious performance. 

There is not a little of burlesque, little as it is meant so, in the next scene. 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 57 

This is a depiction of the Kansas Volunteers, an ante-Civil war plan to aliolish 
slavery, which was nipped in the bud. We have citizens of New Haven in queer, 
bottle-green tail coats, and flat-topped hats. The relieving effect of feminine 
costume is there, improving the opportunity of the strange fashions of 1856. 
Henry W^ard Beecher is supposed to appear and make an address. The re- 
cruits are escorted on their way in very impressive fashion, if one chooses to 
take it so. 

The death of Theodore Winthrop, reviving an almost forgotten episode of 
Yale in the Civil war, is made memorable by the earnest participation of almost 
the entire strength of the Grand Army posts of New Haven and vicinity. Win- 
throp was the first northern ofificer to fall in the battles of this war, and the 
scene depicts the request for his body by his comrades and its formal surrender, 
with full military honors, by the Confederate troops. The men in Gi'ay ai'e the 
product of the costumer and the stage manager, though they do their parts well, 
but these men in Blue, with their slouch and tasseled felt hats — they are living 
over again scenes that are still vivid in their memories. Their part in this scene, 
carried out to the last solenni detail of military exactness, makes a tremendous 
impression on all beholders. It is an historic event, and in it alone the Pageant 
repays all it cost. It is worth our while to pause here and read, from Brian 
Hooker's masterpiece of description of the whole Pageant, his thrilling touch 
of that particiilar scene : 

"Now comes a company of gray-clad soldiers through the western gate. They 
stack their rifles and lounge about with a casual air of waiting for someone. So 
they are, and so are we ; and after plenty of time, out come the Union soldiers 
on the other side, to the small squealing of one fife and the beat of two rather 
tremulous drums. These are no dressed-up mummers, but the very men them- 
selves: Grand Army men, some 200 of them; their old blue uniforms hanging 
loose over shrunken shoulders — and their rusty old Springfields at the carry. 
There is no hurrying these old fellows. Very deliberately, very professionally, 
with the otf-hand, almost clumsy correctness of men to whom the drill is no new 
lesson but the memory of an old business, they form in line facing the Southern- 
ers. Order arms. Parade rest. Officers to the front. And the small group 
with its flag of truce goes out to meet the enemy with all military formality, and 
to receive Colonel Winthrop 's body in its new pine eofiin. Present arms. The 
Confederates fire a salute. The coffin is borne back to the line in Blue. Another 
salute is fired. They wheel slowly into column and with arms reversed start 
slowly to move away. And then something happens. For ten minutes those two 
hundred or so old gentlemen of our fathers' times have been going through what 
for them was not play-acting but the very truth itself. For ten minutes they 
have stood there remembering; and their memory reaches out and strikes the 
watching multitudes like an invisible wave. As the long column plods toward the 
stands, the grim gray heads held high and the thin fife piping a cracked hymn 
tune, .30,000 people are on their feet and uncovered, not knowing why or how ; 
and the applause rises and swells and crackles into one deep roar! Someone 
whispers: 'God! look at their faces!' And we look, and read things written 



58 A .MODERN IIISTOKY OF NEW HAVEN 

there. These men did not keep us out of war. They faced it, and brought us 
through on the right side. They were too proud to fight with words alone. They 
fought with more than words; and the tire of things we cannot understand 
shines on their steady faces. In all the Pageant there has been nothing like this ; 
for the rest was allegory and reminiscence; but this is a resurrection." 

There is less of imagery and more of realism in the third Interlude, wherein 
certain ladies and gentlemen of New Haven and the university improve the 
opportunity to exploit the wonderful costumes of the Civil war period. It is, 
as the program tells us, "a Iloopskirt Prom." Or, as the more dignitied Book of 
the Pageant hath it, "the Wooden Spoon Prom." It is depicted with such 
dignity as the cumbersome costumes compel on the field before us, and is soon 
over. It seems to lack something, after the previous interludes. 

For the fourth or modern episode the Book of the Pageant had a series of 
fourteen impressive panels, which were to be presented as tableaux. But the 
afternoon draws near its close, and if the finale is to he presented while yet the 
autumn sun will give life to its color, something must be cut. So the Yale 
Battery, the triumph of Mars which many have been waiting to see comes on. 
Refreshed after the terrors of Tobyhanna, trim in olive-green khaki, the soldier 
boys bring on their guns and go through their evolutions, ending with a salute 
which rattles the nerves of the timid and tills the Bowl with the smell of powder. 
The din of battle dies away, the faithful Boy Scouts who have been doing page 
duty betw^een the acts make their last appearance, and we are ready for the finale. 

The program has warned that any who want to hurry away must do so before 
this finale, because the portals will be in use by the performers for a little time 
after it. Unfortmiate are they who thought they could not wait. It is the 
climax, the summary, the ensemble, all in one. It returns to the glory of imagery, 
it employs the feast of color. In it shines the Light and out of it stands the 
Truth of Yale. The Bride of New Haven, the Mother of Colleges and of Men. 
herein is glorified. 

Throned amid lilies and attended by blue-clad figures representing the nine 
departments. Mother Yale is borne in, while around her throng and flow again 
her water-children, the Waves of the first interlude. Then from out each portal 
comes a beautifully gowned woman — thirty of them, representing the thirty 
colleges of which Yale is the mother. Then, all at once, high at the crest of every 
aisle of the vast Bowl, appears a wind-blown figure as if at the rim of the 
horizon. There is a pause as these figures spread their arms like wings. A 
little more, and there are po\iring into the Bowl from every portal the whole 
of the 7,000 who have participated in the Pageant. All the pomp, all the color, 
all the glory are there. They gather and gi-oup themselves appropriately, on 
a ]n-eviously arranged plan of effect. '"'The whole Pageant at once: all places 
and times together, spirit and substance, hero and jester, history and tradition 
and dream." 

The great crowd rises from its seats. Nothing must be lost of such a scene. 
Its like will never come again. The Bowl will see strange sights and witness 
brave deeds. It has wonderful times ahead. But there can be only one Pageant 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 59 

therein, and this is the supreme moment of that Pageant. The multitude stands 
as if entranced, while slowly the mass untwines, resolves itself into a solemn 
march, chanting the grand old hymn of call to worship: 

Lord God Almighty ! 
Who hast blessed our fathers. 
Bless us and guide us by 
Thy Holy Light. 

Slowly the grandeur and glory and song melt into the portals, and presently 
the velvet green of the field is as quiet and serene as if it had been untrodden. 
So far as concerns the scene of its production, the Pageant of 1916 is a thing 
of memory only. 

The Pageant is not over. New Haven had jiarticipated generously in the 
main production, Ijut the city as an organization had its part. For the three 
days of the celebration the historic old Green, for more than two centuries a 
sharer in every event that had concerned Yale and New Haven, had been 
notably decorated in honor of the occasion. From the Liberty pole as a center, 
streamers of white and blue bunting extended to the four corners and sides of 
the lower Green. Yale and New Haven seals were set on standards all around 
the Green. Underneath and around the Liberty pole was a canopy or court of 
honor, where on that Saturday night after the Pageant a band played to some 
20,000 people, while searchlights from the neighboring buildings played upon 
the scene. 

The closing event of the great occasion was next day at Woolsey Hall, when 
President Hadley preached the anniversary sermon. Fittingly he had chosen 
his text, "For we are members one of another." It was a thoughtful, con- 
vincing presentation of the oneness of Yale and New Haven well worthy to 
close this celebration. Especially did it show that the men who have honored 
Yale most have also honored the city most : that their highest ideals and highest 
service have been for the two together; that in the achievements of such men 
"college and city can claim an equal share and look with equal measure of 
pride." He dwelt not altogether in the past; he gave good advice. Admitting 
that there have been misunderstandings, he sought to show how they may be 
avoided in the future, how harmony that has less of the name and more of the 
fact can be attained. He dwelt on the ideal which he had preached before, of 
Yale and Yale men in public service. Applying this directly to the relations of 
Yale men and the city in which they live he said : 

"In order to make this spirit of mutual understanding effective and useful 
we must develop tlie habit of co-operation betw^een city and college. The best 
way to understand one another is to work together. We have been too much 
absorbed in our separate problems — the teacher with his teaching, the scholar 
with his studies, the merchant with his business, the politician with his politics. 
These things are a large part of life, but they are not the whole of life. The 
affairs of society are as important as each man's private affairs; and the affairs 
of society cannot be properly managed unless the men of theoiy and the men 



60 A MODEKN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN 

of practice act together in managing tbeni. This is becoming more and more 
obvious as years go on. Questions of public education, of public administration 
and of public morality are every day coming more and more into the fore- 
ground. ' ' 

In such practical words the president of Yale recognized that the ideal had 
not been attained, while felicitating his hearers on the measure of harmony 
which the Pageant celebration had sealed. The Pageant was over ; he was draw- 
ing some lessons from it. Much as had been attained, it was only a glimpse of 
what might be. But at least New Haven and Yale had bj' this two hundredth 
anniversary celebration come into the consciousness that they were one, and that 
their future progress must at least be along parallel, not divergent lines. 



CHAPTER IX 
THE OLD AND THE NEW 

THE CONTRAST OF THE CENTURIES AND THE ELEMENTS THAT MAKE IT — A GENERAL 
GLIMPSE OF TWENTIETH CENTURY NEW HAVEN 



We have seen the small and difficult beginnings of New Haven. We have 
seen that, ambitious as was the plan of the founders, they were content, after 
a few hard knocks from fate, to take what the gods sent them, and maintain their 
•existence. It looked for many years as though New Haven would have to be 
content among the minor cities of Connecticut. Through the latter half of the 
seventeenth and all through the eighteenth centuries, New Haven had half a 
dozen rivals that equalled or surpassed her in size. It was not until 1820 
that New Haven positively took first place, stepping into the rank whic^i she 
has maintained so long. 

It was apparent almost from the first, to be sure, that New Haven was to be 
one of the most important towns of the state, whatever its size. Its rank was 
so impressive that Hartford was, from early in the eighteenth century, fain to 
share with it the honor of being the capital of the state. The establishment of the 
college in New Haven at once gave it a prestige as a center of education and in- 
fluence, a source of supply of the state's professional men and leaders. Then, 
with the beginning of the nineteenth centiuy, it began to forge ahead in physical 
size, until it became noticeably a leader in population, and for a long time, in 
wealth. 

But New Haven was never a boom town. It developed slowly, it grew steadily, 
not spasmodically. Conservatism became characteristic of it. Conservative it 
has remained until now. All through the nineteenth century, while steadily 
growing in strength and substance, it never outwardly startled the beholder. 
Those who really knew the city came to love it for its "parts" rather than for 
ostentatious prosperity. It was a city of traditions and history, a city content 
to have intensive rather than extensive growth. 

There were, as we have noticed, some who wearied of having their city known 
merely as "the seat of Yale college." Tliey longed to have other qualities of 
New Haven, which to them seemed more important, bi'ought to the front. They 
knew that the city had, and had long possessed, manufacturing institutions, for 

61 



62 A MODERN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN 

instauee, qualilied to make it iuteriiatioiially famous. Ivnowledge of these was 
not wholly suppressed, and in the "geographies" of the latter nineteenth century, 
New Haven became rated as the home of the clock and the producer of fine 
carriages and ferocious tirearms, as well as the home of Yale. 

Yet New Haven had not awakened as the modernists would like to see it. 
Its great manufacturers and its substantial merchants, knowing within them- 
selves that they had substance and quality, were willing to keep the information 
to themselves and to a few of their people. Their business w'as prospering. The 
discerning took their goods. Their trade was increasing, according to their 
standards. Why should they ask for more .' The age of advertising had not 
arrived, at least not in New Haven. A chamber of commerce — and New Haven 
had possessed such an institution since 1794 — was a dignified commercial club 
to the members of those days. It held a banquet once a year, and that was suffi- 
cient to justify its existence. There came a time when somebody pointedly asked 
what it did between meals, but that was later. 

Such, in more material particulars, was the New Haven which woke on 
the morn of its 264th year when it celebrated with Yale the completed two 
centuries. The opening of the twentieth century had seen a different New Haven, 
if it had but known it. Things had come to it to make it different. The tele- 
phone had come. In 1878 New Haven had been the place of the establishment 
of the first telephone exchange in America, and its original directory of sub- 
scribers, printed on one side of a fairly small sheet of paper, is a curiosity to 
exhibit today beside the 400 pages of the Southern New England Telephone 
Company's big directory of Connecticut, with its over 66,000 subscl'ibers in New 
Haven. 

The electric railway had come. When, in 1892, the first electric car, un- 
loaded from a freight at the New Haven station, came by its own power from 
the station to the Green, horses drew all the cars on the few street railways 
of New Haven. Still, and for several years later, they were keeping a spare 
horse at the corner of Elm and State streets, to help the loaded Fair Haven 
cars up the Grand Avenue grade. That fii'st electric car, by the way, was a 
storage battery affair. When it reached the Green, its power gave out, and 
there it stuck until ignominiously moved away by horses. The experiment did 
not encourage New Haveii to try the storage battery system, and when it went, 
a year or two later, into the electric car business, it adopted the well known 
trolley. New Haven well remembers its first electric line, which ran from the 
Green out Church and down Elm, thence to State and out to James Street, 
■where it abandoned the well known route for Laraberton and Ferry, going on 
down to Chapel. That was in 1893. When, a little later, the line was continued 
to Morris Cove and Lighthouse Point, New Haven opened its eyes in wonder, 
and the rival lines took notice. 

The electric light had come. New Haven by 1890 was well lighted, as cities 
went. Arc lights made its streets, according to the standards of the time, 
conveniently navigable even on a rainy night. Rut electric lights for interiors 
■were still rare. Many of the public buildings, and particularly the churches. 




LKiHTHOUSK POINT. Xi:\V HA\EX 




VIEW i;)F MORRIS COVE, NEW HAVEX 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 63 

were gas lighted as late as 1905 and afterward. And when in 1912 the "White 
Way" was agitated, making some of the central streets brilliantly lighted ac- 
cording to modern standards, there were business men who shook their heads. 
Five years later, the city took over the "White Way" as a matter of course, 
and has since extended it to other streets as unquestionably worth its cost in 
safety and business advantage. 

Shore expansion had come. Up to 1895, New Haven had Savin Rock — which 
belonged, and still belongs to West Haven. Not so long liefore that, it had meant 
a ten-cent expenditure to take a ride to Savin Rock, less than five miles away. 
But it was not a residence shoi-e resort. It was in the closing days of the century 
that the real development of the East Shore began. There were a few pioneei's 
there in those days, who thought they were hardy if they braved the mosquitoes 
for three months in the summer, but professed to get enough advantage to make 
up for them. Now Morris Cove is a ward of New Haven city, filled with cottages 
all the way from the Palisades to Lighthouse Point, with many side streets well 
developed, and a large part of the former cottagers living there all the year. 

The We.st Shore now seems to be a part of New Haven, though most of it is 
in Mil ford. In summer time, it is a part of the greater New Haven, and many 
of the residents of the city have handsome shore places there. Some are tempted 
to, and many do, live there all the year. 

But it is more to the point that expansion has come to New Haven itself, 
centrally. It was not long after 1890 that the name "Westville" began to mean 
something besides far Whalley Avenue, and Martin Sti-eet was renamed "Edge- 
wood Avenue." Edgewood Park was not, but the ride out Edgewood Avenue 
into Westville, when the new trolley line was opened, was like travel into a newly 
discovered country. In the somewhat over two decades since, Westville has 
become the most important suburb belonging to New Haven. It has preserved its 
own individuality in many respects, and has its distinct school and social life, 
but it is a convincing proof of how New Haven has outgrown its former 
boundaries. 

Industrial expansion had come. The "important factories" which in 1890 
could almost be counted on the fingei's of two hands, if one's memory were 
good enough, had become over half a hundred ma.jor concerns, well known 
abroad, if not in New Haven. It was frequently being remarked by the observ- 
ant, indeed, that New Haven was not getting full credit for its impoi'tance as a 
manufacturing center. 

ilost important of all, New Haven had startlingly changed in population. 
The 2.3,000 addition to its number between 1880 and 1890, and the almost equal 
increase by 1900, were not additions of "native stock." The 40,000 foreign 
born, and the 43,000 native born of foreign parentage, which were found in 
1910, had been coming. In 1892 there were Italians enough in New Haven to 
raise money for a fine statue of Columbus on Wooster Square, and shortly after 
that it was estimated that a fifth of the jiopulation of New Haven was Italian. 
At that time they constituted, however, only one in fifty or more nations and 
tribes to he found distinctly represented in polyglot New Haven. 



64 A MODERN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN 

Did the city adequately appreciate all these changes ? Apparently not. Some 
of them had been too rapid for it. It knew it was growing and changing, but 
it did not think it essential to catalogue its progress. Not all the people recog- 
nized it as progress. Like all conservative cities. New Haven had some citizens 
who regretted many features of the change. They were contented with the 
old order. They were not especially enthusiastic over the new. The old elms 
sulHeed them. For the new ideas they did not especially care. But the new 
ideas were bound to come. The old elms, as we may later obsei've, were not 
l)ound to remain. 

The date of the renaissance is difficult to set. It began gradually, probably 
about the time of the Yale Bicentennial. New Haven got some of its new vision 
from that. Leaders in thought and vision followed up the advantage. Yale's 
policy of participation helped. The Chamber of Commerce came out of its 
century's dream, and that helped more than anything else. The Civic Federa- 
tion, the Business Men 's Association, the Publicity Club, all joined in the effort. 
New Haven had come into a new era. Now it came to consciousness of the fact. 

II 

What is this New Haven of contrast, the New Haven of today? It is a city 
profitable for comparison with the crude center of the colony, or even with the 
smug, unconscious New Haven of the latter eighteen hundreds. It is a city 
which impresses the beholder who comes from without more than it does the 
accustomed beholder who lives within. A distinguished engineer, a few years 
ago, called New Haven, as a port, the key to New England. Here, at length, 
is a center of New World commerce, a railroad center, a potential shipping 
center, such as Theophilus Eaton, even with old London in his vision, never 
conceived in the wildness of his dream. Here is the water gateway to the 
busiest freight section of the East beyond New York. Here is the water outlet 
for the intense New England manufacturing section, immensely important now, 
having far greater possibilities for the future. 

Much of this is in the future, no doubt. For the present here is a city esti- 
mated to have 175,000 people, in the center of a district whose facilities easily 
reach 200,000 more. Within a radius of a hundred miles are upward of ten 
millions of the people of this country. It has more industries than any other 
city of Connecticut or southern New England, and some of them, at this par- 
ticular time, are of immense magnitude. It has a greater variety of products than 
many cities several times its size. Railroads, centering here, radiate to New 
York and Boston, and to all the important manufacturing and supply and trade 
centers of New England. It has steamboat lines which supplement its railroad 
facilities. It has a harbor that is the admiration and despair of many a city 
of the South and West that does three times New Haven's business. To make 
it, the city encircles a bay that runs in nearly four miles from Long Island 
sound, and is almost a mile and a half in width. It has not anything like a 
uniformly navigable channel, but much has been done to deepen it, and there 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 65 

is a field for much more effort. The chauuel uow existing is from 300 to 400 
feet wide and more than twenty feet in depth, allowing vessels of large draught 
to reach the docks. Improvements in both channel and dock facilities are being 
constantly made. 

New Haven of today is a clean city, with well paved and well kept streets, 
with hundreds of miles of modern, uniform cement sidewalks. It did not 
always boast of these things. Up to 1909, a policy of mistaken economy had 
retarded street pavement until the city's needs had got ahead of it, and the 
miles of uneven, unsafe, archaic brick sidewalks were far more conspicuous than 
the comparatively short stretches of the modern type. But New Haven had a 
permanent paving commission made up of men with good ideas, and about that 
time the city adopted the policy of giving it a free hand. Discarding all the 
wrecks and failures of the past, the commission decided on two, or at the most 
three types of pavement as sufficient for the city's varying needs. For the 
streets of heaviest traffic, wood block. For streets of moderate traffic, asphalt, 
either laid on new foundation or laid over an old foundation of substantial 
macadam. For other streets, tar-bound macadam as a general type. 

The improvement in sidewalks is a monument to Frank J. Rice, mayor of 
New Haven for seven years. When first inaugurated in 1910, he pledged him- 
self to seek, among other things, better sidewalks. He tried to accomplish many 
things, and did accomplish numerous notable ones, but one of the most conspicu- 
ous, if not the most important was the more than 200 miles of the best type of 
sidewalk which he caused to replace brick or broken asphalt in the city he loved, 
and to whose service he gave up his life. 

The city is comparatively clean because of a custom inaugurated in 1908 by 
the Civic Federation, known as "Clean City Week." It usually coincided, at 
first, with the Easter vacation in the schools, and the service of the pupils, 
boys and girls, was enlisted in the effort to use their influence to the end of 
clearing back yards, vacant lots and obscure streets of \insiglitly or unsanitary 
refuse. In addition, the boys were enlisted as inspectors. They visited all back 
yards so far as possible, all vacant lots and other repositories of rubbish, and 
reported the condition of those whose owners had not responded to the public 
appeal to clean up. At the end of the week another inspection was made, and 
progress, if any, reported. Meanwhile, the city had done what it could. In 
espceiall.y stubborn cases, the aid of an ordinance was invoked. In 1916 the cit.v 
took over this work, and carried it on through the schools. Volunteer citizens 
visited each school on the Friday before Cleanup week, pi-eaching the gospel of 
consistent cleanliness, not neglecting to emphasize its high advantage. The 
results have been evident and abiding. 

Almost every moderate sized city is called by its enthusiasts a "city of 
liomes. " New Haven has never very conspicuously made this claim. It has 
been, in recent years, a city of much building, largely of residences, in addition 
to many notable public and business edifices. The gap toward Westville, by 
either way of approach, has been almost entirely filled up. Residences have 
spread out almost to the city limits in the Yale Field direction. Two notable 

Vol. I 5 



66 A MODERN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN 

iuhtances of tliis etieet are often meutioued. Somewhere about 1900 the people 
at the west end of the city iwere alarmed because Roger Sherman School was 
placed so far beyond them, in the far edge of the residence district. Now the 
residences have spread so far and so numerously beyond it that the city has 
been compelled to make the Barnard School, w'hich stands for its part on "the 
far boundaries of civilization, "' draw off some of the district's surplus school 
population. 

In 1899 the people of the College Street Church, on selling their building to 
Yale University, were so daring as to select for their new building a site on far 
West Chapel Street, at the corner of Sherman Avenue. In a sense, it was in 
the western wilderness then. Now Plymouth Church, as the new edifice is 
called, is on the eastern front of its field. 

In other directions the population has spread out Dixwell Avenue far into 
Hamden, and out Prospect Street into the same town. Striking the encircling 
Ilamden in another direction, Wliitney Avenue is lined with comfortable homes 
almost continuously from its junction with Temple Street to Mount Carmel. 

It naturally follows that many, and prol)ably as good a proportion as in 
most cities, of these new buildings are what might lie called homes. Certain 
it is that the building and loan companies of New Haven are conservative, 
prosperous and sound, which tells something of the story. The habit of owning 
a two-family house in order to rent one part is very common, and judging by 
the appeals of the real estate men, very popular. The records of the savings 
banks, moreover, would indicate that whether the people are paying rent or buy- 
ing houses, they are saving money. 

New Haven observed utility rather than art in the building of its industrial 
plants. Other cities long have sought to make beauty spots of their factory dis- 
tricts; New Haven has not, as a rule, seen the use of it. It has followed the 
creed that if it produced the goods, the looks of the factory did not matter. 
Stern brick walls bound most of New Haven's factories and the rule is few lawns 
and no great amount of adorning ivy. In a word, most of New Haven's factories 
are outwardly old fashioned. 

But they are not so within, judged by their products. Manufacturing New- 
Haven is practically up to the times. It is a city versatile in its industries. Time 
was when a single, or at most two or three lines of manufacture stood out as 
distinctive of New Haven. In a measure that is true now, but not as it used 
to he. New Haven is not a brass town, not a silver town, not a hardware town — 
no longer a firearms town. Yet it makes, in measure large or small, most of the 
lines of goods which give Connecticut cities their distinctive names. A list of 
the things that New Haven makes would surprise many citizens, but it would 
not long be remembered by many of them. 

Let it suffice to know that New Haven makes toys as well as high class 
plumbers' house fittings, a large factory having recently been equipped for the 
manufacture of the former. New Haven makes a great many guns and explosive 
shells at any time — a tremendously increased number in this time of war. Biit 
New Haven also makes large numbers of modern pianos, and just outside the 




HOTEL TAFT, NEW HAVEN 



J 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 67 

city, counted as a New Haven industry, is one of the famous pipe organ factories 
of America. New Haven corsets are advertised wlierever women wear stays; 
it is not as widely known that New Haven malies a hirge line of electric elevators. 
Clocks and watches are among the historic manufactures of New Haven; the 
city has a bird cage factory that is almost as famous iu its way. New Haven, 
of course, because of the inventions here of Goodyear, was one of the original 
rubber towns. Its extensive manufacture of automobile radiators is more recent. 

The list would be tiresome, but justice to the subject requires a glimpse of 
it. In addition to the things mentioned, there are made in New Haven folding 
paper boxes, cigars, candy, geometric tools, dies, sewing machine attachments, 
fishing reels, pliers, drop forgings of all sorts, wire in every variety, printers' 
machinery, hosiery and underwear, aeroplanes and airships, .spectacular fireworks 
of all sorts, concrete building stone, hack saws, saddlery .specialties, carriage and 
automobile bodies, suspender welibing, safes, silk and silk skeins. Factories for 
the making of these and a hundred other lines of goods fill aud overflow New 
Haven in half a dozen dift'erent directions. There are over 800 manufacturing 
estalilishments, with a capital of $12,000,000 invested in them. The endless 
variety stabilizes the manufacturing business in New Haven, since a dullness in 
one or even three or four trades has little eft'ect on the varied whole. New 
Haven is very far from being a one-industry town. 

New Haven has not followed the ideals of John Davenport religiously, but 
it has followed them intelligently. It has remained through all the years what 
it was at the first, a center of Congregationalism. Its fourteen churches of that 
order now include four distinct races of people not even conceived of by those 
who founded the sect. The gi-ound which Congi-egationalism has held in New 
Haven has not been without a struggle, for the city, as we may observe, has 
grown cosmopolitan. Not only are more than fifty tongues and dialects, repre- 
senting almost every country of the world, found in New Haven, but they 
have brought their religions. And none of the important sects which have 
sprung up in America in the years since New Haven's foundations were laid is 
without its church or churches here, unless we except that Unitarian Church 
which has been Boston's rebellion against the strictness of the older ordei-. 

The early churches clustered on the Green, which was well enougli while 
the city was small, and the people willing to follow the New England cu.stom 
of "coming to the center" to church. Those built somewhat later went only 
a little farther from the heart of the city. So it came about that in 1880 there 
were, on the Green or within two or three city blocks of it, five Congregational 
churches, the First Methodist Church, the leading Baptist Church of the city, 
the largest Catholic Church, three leading Episcopal churches, a Presbytei-ian 
Church and two Jewish synagogues. Ten churches centrally serving a population 
at that time about 63,000, was not" a large number, to be sure, hut it meant 
competition, not co-operation. For the population of New Haven had by that 
time begun to spread to distances which demanded churches in their own local- 
ities. A good part of it was in Fair Haven, and it had its own churches. "West- 
ville was a substantial community, with its ow-n churches almost from the be- 



68 A MODERN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN 

giimiug. Other outlying sections were well served by churches of the various 
denominations. 

And now the church forces of New Haven began to contend with another 
change to which they were somewhat slow to adjust themselves. As we have 
seen, a large part of the additions to New Haven's population since 1880 were 
from other races than those which formed the support of the original churches. 
The effect of this was most noticeable in the Wooster Square section, which had 
once been the city's most fashionable residence district. On the hai-bor side of 
this section the Italians especially had begun to come, and as they grew numerous 
and strong, they i:)ressed towards the square. They did not force out the old 
residents, exactly, for they had begun to move, but they pressed on tliem. New 
Haveners of the old line had not learned, then, what excellent substance for good 
citizenship then- was in these new comers. To them all foreigners looked alike, 
except that Italians were especially obnoxious. They moved. They left, in the 
moving, church buildings which not long before had held large congregations 
and active working forces. Instead of standing their ground, as some have done 
to "the glory of God and the blessing of man," these churches ''scuttled "' so 
to speak. Their congi'egations sold their buildings, and built elsewhere. 

This was true not alone of the Wooster Square section. This is only typical. 
But what is more important, it turned the current of church movement along the 
lines of least resistance, so to speak, all over the city. The churches no longer 
sounded imperative bells to call the people to worship. (There are comparatively 
few church bells in New Haven today, in fact.) Long since had the roll of the 
drum from the tower of the Meeting House on the Green lost its commanding 
power. The churches felt forced to follow the commanding move of the people, 
which was well, in a way. 

It has worked out fairly well for New Haven. It has helped in the breaking 
of the city into communities, which was inevitable, no doubt. The churches have, 
however, taken two courses. Center and Trinity and United have stood their 
gi'oiind on the Green. In the case of Center, this was the only course. It was 
the original church. It represented, still represents, the identification of the 
church with the community which John Davenport established. Center Church 
has not become less a denominational institution. It represents, nobly, cour- 
ageously, the principles of Congregationalism. But it performs in many ways a 
comnnmity service which gives it unchallenged leadership. In the very heart 
of New Haven its heavenward-pointing spii'e, its noble example of the interna- 
tional best type of free church architecture, stand to visualize the ideals of the 
church of God in the New World. In the heart of New Haven's people it stands, 
for many ages and man,y races and many generations have found within its 
walls the spirit of brotherhood, the ideals of a social service above any church 
or race or creed, which their souls have craved. Ably led, the mission which 
Center Church performs is for the saving of the people who have followed the 
paths John Davenport's pilgrims trod. 

In other ways not less noble and inspiring, some of the other churches have 
stood their ground. The notable example, in the Wooster Square district, is 



AND EASTEKN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 69 

Saint Paul's Episcopal. This fine old church, placed in that part of the city to 
serve those of its faith among the old families of New Haven whose homes 
were around Wooster Square, faced the parting of the ways about 1900. Its 
people had in large part removed to other parts of the city, some of them remote. 
Those of other lands, other races and other languages and religious faiths 
had crowded around it. It must decide between the course which at least 
two other churches in the vicinity had taken, of selling its building and starting 
anew in some other part of the city, or of remaining in its place and becoming 
what has since come to be called institutional. This meant, in more ideal terms, 
that if it stood its ground, it would serve the people as it found them, in their 
midst, and in other ways than merely by its formal services on Sunday. It meant 
that it would, all in tlie spirit of its Master and Lord, serve mankind in many 
ways not included in the original New England conception. 

Saint Paul's chose the latter course. It stood its ground. It kept nn in 
the even tenor of its fine old Church of England ritual, so far as concerned its 
formal services. It was served, then and since, by some distinguished leaders, 
and more than once seekers of bishops have turned their eyes in its direction. 
Rut its people were loyal. Some of the most faithful of its supporters and 
workers caught the inspiration of the new opportunity. Saint Paul's remained, 
and served the people. 

Not only were the excellent facilities of the church's parish liouse devoted 
to the social center needs of the people of the district, but their attention was 
attracted in a conspicuous way by the opening of a neighborliood house around 
the corner, in the heart of the foreign section on AVooster Street. There were 
amusement and instructional opportunities which appealed to the residents of 
the neighborhood. There they had a place to gather, to read, to play games, to 
indidge in athletic sports. Boys' clubs and girls' clubs, men's and women's 
organizations, were formed for them. To them religion was made a natural, an 
appealing thing of life. And the people of Saint Paul 's led the way in minister- 
ing to their needs of guidance and instruction. Here in this neighborhood house, 
to make the service intensely practical, was opened one of the city's milk supply 
stations, where in the summer the poorest might get pure milk for the saving 
of the babies, and have friendly advice and help for the proper feeding of their 
children and the conduct of their households. 

In a somewhat different way, Davenport Cliurch at the coi-ner of Wooster 
Square took up the same work. Its people abandoned it, in a sense, in 1909, 
but they went to Center Church. That clmrch took the Davenport building and 
carried on there a work that would have greatly surprised and enlightened him 
from whom the clmrch was named. It was settlement work, witli the definite 
churcli organization as a center. With an Italian pastor at first — New Haven 
still re.ioices in the work which tlie Rev. Francesco Pesaturo did there — later 
with a pastor specially trained for work of this sort. Center Church has main- 
tained here a home, partly religious, partlj^ non-sectarian, for the Italians of the 
city. Those of non-Catholic and Congregational beliefs join the church, and 
their children attend the Sunday school. Others, particularly the boys and 



70 A MODERN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN 

youug meu of the ueighborhood, are affiliated through non-sectariau boys' club 
or Boy Scout or other social center work, lu this department of the service of 
Davenport settlement Allen B. Lincoln of Center Church was for years a leader 
of power and influence, and never will New Haven cease to benefit from the 
seeds of good citizenship, of sturdy manhood, of true brotherhood, of under- 
standing of the best that is in America, which he sowed in the good soil of the 
well disposed youthful minds which came under his influence. 

Otiier fhurehes have joined in a similar way in the needed work of teaching 
American ideals to the multitude from other lands who make up so great a part 
of the population of modern New Haven, notably the Church of the Redeemer 
in its Welcome Hall work on Oak Street. This church, by the way, has also 
yielded to the change caused by New Haven 's expansion, and is about to establish 
itself in a new home at the corner of Whitney Avenue and Cold Spring Street. 
Its fine old edifice at Orange and Wall streets, where the Rev. Jonathan Todd and 
the R^'V. Watson L. Phillips and others made it a power, has been disposed of to 
another church which was forced to yield to the changing character of the city. 
Trinity Gei-man Lutheran Evangelical Church, formerly at the lower end of 
George Street. 

Sn the expanded New Haven has today churches which conveniently serve 
all its residence districts, while its center is still well supplied. It has eighty- 
two churches in the city proper, with a dozen more which are so closely affiliated 
with New Haven's interests in general as to properly belong to the city. The 
single denomination of 1640 has grown to twelve. The Roman Catholic denomi- 
nation has seventeen churches, doing consecrated service in religion and edu- 
cation. The Jewish church has its six synagogues, maintaining not only the 
worship of its faith and order, but serving the whole community in many useful 
ways. 

New Haven has not depended on Yale University for its reputation as an 
educational center. Independent of Yale, there has been made here a notable 
record among the towns of the state and of New England. New Haven not only 
has a good system of education ; it has a difl'erent one whose difference consists 
in the fact that it is better. It makes no empty boast of this ; it makes no boast 
at all. for it has, as will be later shown, the substance in evidence. Aside from 
Yale University, whose nine departments serve every higher educational need, 
New Haven has one of the best of the state's training schools for teachers. 
In the substantial building at the corner of Howe and Oak streets Arthur B. 
Morrill and a corps of teachers with splendid ideals of the profession to which 
they have devoted their lives, perhaps the most vitally important of the profes- 
sions, are annually sending out to the schools of New Haven and of Connecticut 
a hundred young women whose work is to be for the saving of the state. 

New Haven has a high school remarkable in its history, more remarkable in 
its recent development. Long ago it outgrew the Hillhouse building on Orange 
Street, and went to its new edifice on York Square — the only private park in 
New Haven. The rapid development of the city's school requirements made it 
a question, for several years, whether a single central institution, with its uni- 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 71 

forinity of result, would not need to be saeriticcd to a demand for more room. 
There was a struggle between those who wanted to keep the high school one 
and those who would divide in districts. The outcome was not a victory, exactly, 
for either side, but a compromise by which the central plant is enabled to serve 
not only the city but a good deal of the suburbs. Here — not to quote figures 
which constantly change from year to year — is an institution containing more 
students than the average of American colleges, equipped at present, considering 
all its departments, as well as any high school in Connecticut and surpassed by 
few in New England. For it is four schools in one. In the high school building 
proper the usual work of a high school is carried on. In the Boardman Manual 
Training School bixilding are the manual and scientific portions of the high 
school and the whole organization of the apprentice shops (the trade school, 
itself an institution in respect to which New Haven leads the country). Re- 
cently, an added building has been erected to house the commercial school, which 
makes the fourth distinct department of the New Haven secondary education 
system. 

In fifteen wards. New Haven has fifty-two graded schools, where a force of 
between 600 and 700 teachers instruct the nearly 30,000 children of the city — 
children, seemingly of every race and origin e.xistent. Yet so excellent is the 
system that from the "melting pot" is turned out annually, by way of grammar 
or high or normal or trade or night school, much of the pure gold of satisfactorily 
trained and understanding citizenship. 

It is needful here, in tracing the causes which shape the New Haven that is, 
to mention only a few of the moral forces of the city aside from its religious and 
educational systems. Not even a sketch of the development of modern New 
Haven can omit the associations for the Christian culture, on broad and non- 
sectarian grounds, of the city's young men and young women. The Young 
Men's Christian Association, with more than half a century behind it, has had, 
as have most associations dating as far back as that, its struggles for existence. 
When it ambitiously assumed responsibility for a modern association building 
about 1900, it took a burden which staggered it. It suffered from the mistakes 
of management that are inevitable to such an experience. It was not until 1914 
or thereabout that the association came into its own, and was able to give its 
full attention to the saving of New Haven, without having to worry about what 
it should eat and wear and burn. Standing today firm in the confidence and 
support of the substantial people of New Haven, it is performing, as justification 
for their support, a work of formation of character whose value cannot be 
described. 

A similar experience of struggle has been the lot of the sister organization, 
the Young Women's Christian Association. The demands of its work, as the 
city grew, constantly went ahead of its resources. It has long needed an ade- 
quate building — which it will get some day. Meanwhile, with the facilities it 
has, it is doing an indispensable work for the young women of New Haven, 
especially those who need, for a longer or shorter time, what may stand in the 
place of home life and influence. 



72 A MODERN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN 

New Haven has iu its modern time many organizations, ambitious to attain 
many ends. Churches and educational forces maintain societies to the end of 
the improvement of the religious, the moral or the social life of the city. Not 
infrequently they have been found duplicating each other's work, getting in 
each other's way. It was the thought that something might be done toward 
harnessing and harmonizing all this effort, that was a part of the idea in forming 
the Civic Federation. Elsewhere the history of this institution and the names 
of the persons who made it will be told. Let it be mentioned here as a force 
in the peculiar formation of the modern community we are considering. 

There was so much to be done in New Haven when the awakening came. 
There were evils to be contended with — moral, social, physical. There was need 
to build up a harmonious civic spirit. The town was disjointed, spread in 
cliques. There was need for a ennnnon force to hold together its workers of 
good will, in which neither race nor sect nor creed should separate them. They 
should be united in a common task. The Federation would find the ta.sk, it 
would gather the workers, it would set them at work. It would act as a clearing 
house, as it were, of the organizations already at work. It would assume the role 
of guide, counsellor and friend of them all. 

Something of all this has been accomplished. But the federation never 
found a rope quite long enough to hitch its wagon to that star. It was able, 
nevertheless, to do a lot of good, to exert a positive and lasting influence on the 
whole community in some of the directions it sought. It has found tasks enough ; 
it has found many workers. It has done not a little in getting them together. 
But, to repeat a common excuse, "New Haven is peculiar." It was a good 
while set in its ways. The fedei-ation did not find all of the organizations, espe- 
cially some of the old ones, ready to follow. It found, for instance, that the 
Chamber of Commerce assumed much credit for its age and standing, little ac- 
complishment as it was able to show for its years. And it may live to confess 
that what stirred it up and set it out on a new career that accomplished something 
for the city, was the activity of the Civic Federation, It is worth mentioning here 
that, finding that in many departments of activity they were following the 
same paths, the committees of the chamber and of the federation joined hands, 
and met in joint session. 

The result to New Haven was substantial, though not always tangible. It 
was, in general, an awakening. In more directions than in the chamber old and 
dormant forces were set to work. The city government itself saw where it could 
improve. The charter which New Haven put into operation in 1900 was a distinct 
advance, and some sixteen years later another attempt was made to secure, this 
time, a truly modern charter by the standards of today. That attempt has not 
yet arrived at success, but it is on its way, and it knows whither it is going. 

So in many forms the result has come. New Haven has better government, 
better streets, more regular building lines, better forms of central architecture, 
better theaters and cleaner forms of amusement, with some of the objectionable 
features of the old eliminated ; it has better living conditions, it has fewer flies 
and mosquitoes, it has fewer temptations to young men and young girls, it has 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 73 

greater safeguards arouud its juveuile and other delinqiieuts, it has a better jail, 
it has better conditions in a hundred ways, because of the Civic Federation. 

To mention at present but one other modern moving force in New Haven, 
the Chamber of Commerce's day has been in this awakening time. Founded in 
1794, it slumbered longer than did Rip Van Winkle, but its awakening- was 
more to the purpose. Perhaps it is just as well not to assign a date, but it 
was about 1906. It went after the people first. From a membership of 200 
or thereabout it went to 800 in 1909, and to 1,200 five years later. It is still 
moving on. The Business Men's Association had then been founded for some 
time, to perform the well known and stereotyped functions of such organizations 
elsewhere. The Publicity Club was founded in 1910, with the avowed intention 
to "boost New Haven." It did its work so well that the chamber a few years 
later saw the virtue of a triple entente, and the three organizations w-ere merged 
in one, each, however, retaining in large measure its distinct membership. The 
chamber has had some notable banquets since its awakening, and at least two of 
the Presidents of the United States have at different times addressed gatherings 
of more than 1,000 of the leading men of the city in the great dining room of 
Woolsey Hall, but it has done a lot "between meals." It has boomed New 
Haven in everj- legitimate way, largely by quietly but insistently emphasizing the 
good points existing here, largely omitting those merely hoped for. It has been 
discovering the good points of New Haven, and advertising them. It has missed 
no opportunity of "putting the best foot forward" of the town, diplomatically 
and courteously serving as host to all bodies of visitors, financing, through com- 
mittees of its members, many conventions which would bring large asserablages 
here, enabling New Haven in every way to make the best of itself. 

Such are a few of the high lights of the New Haven that is, as the twentieth 
century grows toward the close of its second decade. It is not the complete 
New Haven. There are many details in the picture, some of which are to be 
filled in later. New Haven is not ideal ; it longs to be. It has men of vision, 
with ambitions for it. Some of them achieved, in the first decade of the century, 
what is too important as prophecy, even though yet unfulfilled, to be omitted 
from a modern history of the community. What that is it will be the attempt 
of the following chapter to tell. It is a story of the "City Beautiful." the 
New Haven that would be if it were to be made over from the viewpoint of this 
century. 



CHAPTER X 
THE IDEAL NEW HAVEN 

A REVIEW OF THE RESPECTS IN WHICH THE REPORT OP THE CIVIC IMPROVEMENT 
COMMITTEE SUGGESTED THE RECONSTRUCTION OF THE CITY 



George Dudley Seymour has beeu known as the father of the '"City Beauti- 
ful" as applied to New Haven. It will appear that he deserves a somewhat 
more exact definition of the work he has done in pointing the way for New 
Haven toward the ideal in niunieipal development. He was not the first, per- 
haps, of New Haveners who wandered in the beautiful paths of the Old World, 
to desire that his own city might be developed somewhat in proportion to its 
possibilities as those cities have beeu. lie was not the first, it may be, of the New 
Haven observers of what American cities much younger than this have achieved 
in the direction of municipal beauty, to wish that this pioneer city of America 
might be developed in harmony with its traditions and historical importance. 

But be was the first, it seems, to match his hopes and faith with works. No 
one knew better than he how hard it was to "start New Haven." But never- 
theless, he boldly attacked the task. It was in 1907 that Jlr. Seymour embodied, 
in a series of thoughtful and most carefully elaborated articles in one of the 
New Haven newspapers, somewhat in detail, with some illustrative views of the 
city as it was, his "City Beautiful" plan. The phrase caught, but the people 
did not take it very seriously. It would cost money to change New Haven over 
in that way. Just then, let it be explained. New Haven was drawing near the 
close of a disastrous — as it proved — period of attempt to see how low the tax 
rate could be kept, to the utter disregard of things that needed to be done in 
the city. Schools and streets and especially New Haven's wonderfully potential 
but undeveloped park system, had suffered. But the people had conceived the 
notion that it was a great thing to refrain from spending money. They politely 
laughed at Mr. Seymour's expensive tastes in making over a city. "City 
Beautiful," repeated by those who but partly sensed what it meant, caught up 
l)y others who knew nothing at all about it, became something very like a joke. 
]\Ir. Seymour took it good naturedly, but be did not in the least lose his 
grip on the thought. He had accomplished, for the time being, what he desired. 
He had got the people to talking about a better New Haven. At least it had 
dawned upon some of them that somebody thought the city could be improved. 
He published, in the New Haven newspapers of June 5, 1907, an "open letter," 

74 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 75 

proposing certain very defiDite thiugs, the first of which was a mass meeting of 
the citizens to consider proceeding ou a citj- improvement plan. As a result 
of that letter, or at least following its publication, Mayor John P. Studley called 
a mass meeting in Colonial Hall on the evening of June 19. It was largely 
attended, and the discussion showed encouraging interest in the subject dis- 
cussed in the letter. This resolution, offered by Henry C. White, attorney, and 
seconded by Burton Mansfield, attorney, was approved by several prominent 
citizens in appreciative speeches, and then passed unanimously : 

"Voted: — That a committee be appointed by the Mayor, of which he shall be 
a member ex officio, to include one member of the Board of Aldermen, one 
member of the Board of Park Commissioners, and nine other citizens, to employ 
experts to prepare a plan for the improvement of the city of New Haven, if after 
con.sideration they deem this course advisable ; to procure, by appropriation or 
otherwise, the money necessary to pay the charges and expenses of such experts, 
if employed; and to bring any plan which may be made to the attention of the 
government and people of the city, with the committee's recommendations in 
regard to such plan ; said committee to have power to add to and fill vacancies in 
its membership." 

Within a few days, pursuant to this resolution, Mayor Studley appointed 
this "New Haven Civic Improvement Committee" of twelve members: 

Hon. Rollin S. Woodruff, Hon. John P. Studley, George Dudley Seymour, 
George D. Watrous, William W. Farnam, Frederick D. Grave, Max Adler, 
James T. Moran, Frederick F. Brewster, Harry G. Day, Rev. Anson Phelps 
Stokes, Jr., Harry H. Townshend. 

Meanwhile, as a further part of the work of preparing the mind of New- 
Haven for the plan, this course of lectures was given, open to the public without 
charge, in the Trumbull gallery of the Yale Art School. It had been suggested 
and was partly arranged by Prof. John F. Weir : 

December 3, 1908, Mr. Frank ^liles Day, president of the American Institute 
of Architects, "Civic Improvement in the United States;" December 10, 1908, 
Mr. Cass Gilbert, A. I. A., S. A. R., "Grouping of Public Buildings;" December 
17, 1908, Mr. John M. Carriere, A. I. A. (of Carriere & Hastings), "Civic Im- 
provement as to Parks, Streets and Buildings;" January 21, 1909, Mr. Walter 
Cook, trustee of the American Institute of Architects, "Some Considerations in 
Civic Improvement;" January 28, 1909, Mr. Frederick Law^ Olmsted, Jr., A. 
S. L. A.. "Parks and Civic Improvements;" February 4, 1909, Mr. Charles 
Howard Walker. A. I. A., "Embellishment of Cities." 

The discriminating and the true seekers after progress improved this 
opportunity, and had their reward, but they were not discomforted by much 
crowding. Meanwhile, the work had been financed, according to the terms of 
the resolution, by ninety-five citizens, and New Haven waited for the appearance 
of the report. 

It came on September 26. 1910, in the shape of a handsome, finely printed, 
attractively illustrated octavo volume of 136 pages. And all of its press matter 
was good meat. One wonders how many of the people of New Haven have ever 



76 A MODERN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN 

read it, how many of them do not even yet know of its existence. Yet it is the 
law and the gospel of the "City Beautiful," the code of rules on which, as fast 
as New Haven advances in real civic improvement, it must proceed. As such, 
the report itself is legitimate history. An attempt will be made to condense 
here the essence of the recommendations of the report. 

II 

As a basis for the reconniiendations there was a statement of the present con- 
ditions and tendencies. By a diagram it was shown that not only has New 
Haven been growing at a steadily increasing rate, but that many of those now 
living will see the completion of the process by which it is being transformed 
from the pleasant little New England college town of the middle nineteenth 
centurj', with a population of relatively independent, individualistic and self- 
sufficing householders, into the widespread urban metropolis of the twentieth 
century, the citizens of which will be wholly dependent upon joint action for a 
very large proportion of the good things of civic life. 

The accompanying diagram showed the population growth of New Haven 
from 1850 to 1910, with parallel growth-curves of certain larger cities. The 
climax of the showing was that if New Haven follows the experience of the 
other cities similarly situated, it will have a population of some 400,000 in the 
year 1950. And the end of the twentieth century, we were somewhat sensation- 
ally told, might see a population of a million and a half centering in the New 
Haven Green. It w-as desirable, therefore, to remodel, to build, to plan with 
that possibility in view. 

There was a second diagram, less theoretical, charting the composition of 
New Haven's population in 1910. It showed that the city had obtained about 
one-third of its increase in population through immigration. That the Irish, 
though still predominating among the foreign born of 1900, were actually de- 
creasing in numbers, while the more recent immigrants from southern and east- 
ern Europe bade fair soon to overtake the older sources of foreign population 
and probably to increase materially the total percentage of foreign born in the 
city. Moreover, the birth rate of the Italians and Russians was strikingly 
higher than that of the earlier immigrants, that of all the immigrants was higher 
than that of the native born, and that of the native born of foreign parents 
was greater than the rate of births among native parents. Therefore it was 
clearly evident that the percentage of old New England stock in the population 
was progi-essively diminishing. People of the old New England stock still to 
a large extent controlled the city, and if they wanted New Haven to be a fit and 
worthy place for their descendants, it behooved them to establish conditions 
about the lives of all the people that would make the best fellow citizens of them 
and of their children. 

New Haven was summarized as a town of many industries, a local distrib- 
uting center, a local coastwise shipping port, an educational center of national 
importance. Its conditions were such that "people here can work hard and 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 77 

enjoy life.'" The iufereuce was that New Haveu could afford to do what was 
reeomiuended. 

lu the lifetime of the present generation, the city has changed from a New 
England country town, in which one could in a short walk, and under com- 
fortable elms, cover the space from center to suburb. It is now a widely spread 
city, said the report, becoming centrally congested, yet so spread as to furnish 
the street railway company with 31,599,4:53 fares a year. Yet not only have 
the old streets been left unwidened, but new ones show no plan to match 
changed and prospective conditions. For the people themselves, especially the 
young, there had been provided no recreation facilities. 

These were but hints of what the distinguished planners (the names signed to 
the report were Cass Gilbert and Frederick Law Olmsted) were going to 
propose. As to New Haven's financial ability to adopt their conclusions, they 
said further: 

'"So far as appears on the face of the figures, there seems to be no reason 
why New Haven shoud hesitate, on the score of financial difficulties, to undertake 
a liold and farsighted policy in needful public improvements, provided the work 
is done without extravagance, waste or corruption." 

The report then proceeded with mention of the kinds of improvement most 
needed. It is worth knowing that the first of these was, in the opinion of the 
distinguished experts, a new railroad station. The railroad should have a better 
s.ystem of freight yards, on filled land seaward, to give New Haven more room. 
It should provide more sidings for the factoi'ies. On the marshes to the east 
of the Quinnipiac seemed the best place for those. 

New Haven Harbor, instead of occupying a minor position, should be 
brought up more nearly to its possibilities. New Haven should control more 
of its shore properties (a suggestion then and since woefully disregarded). New 
Haven should have wider main thoroughfares, because of the increasing traffic 
on them. This was something to which to look forward and plan. But two 
things were to be looked after at once: The widening of Chapel Street; the 
building of a proper approach to the station. 

The fact that two principal arteries of street ear traffic cross each other at 
grade, making serious hazard and delay, suggests the need of a subway some- 
where from the northern approach on Whitney Avenue near Grove Street, 
passing under the center of the city and emerging south of George Street. 

There was an extended discussion of street and building lines, with many 
general suggestions. The proper width of sidewalks to roadways was defined. 
The required width of streets when trees are to be preserved was set. The 
standard width in various European cities was given. The city was advised 
to conserve its trees, bury its wires and suppress its advertising signs. There 
was some very impressive figuring as to the cash value of well nourished shade 
trees. 

As to sewage disposal, while the report did not go deeply into the matter, 
some practical suggestions were made, one of which was that New Haven have 
one channel for its large but harmless flow of surface water, which might be 



78 A MODERN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN 

open, and other covered channels for its sewage. For the rest, the report sug- 
gested that the city study hard on a problem that is peculiarly its own. 

New Haven thought it had a fine system of parks in 1910, though it admitted 
a shortage of developed playgrounds. With the kindnes.s of a wounding friend, 
Messrs. Gilbert and Olmsted proceeded to treat these parks as if they were only 
crude beginnings. Great stress was laid on the fact that parks and playgrounds, 
to be good foi anything, must be brought to the people; the people who need 
them most will never go to them, at least not far. "Within easy walking distance 
of every home in the city," is the rule. This refers to what the report called 
"local parks." The fine mountain and landscape gardened parks are for driving 
and long-distance pedestrians and show. The' local parks are for the people. 
New Haven needed more of them, and of playgrounds. Chicago's plan of a 
park within a half mile of every house was mentioned. A map of New Haven 
showing great black areas unenlightened by parks in the far western, eastern 
and southwestern sections, wa.s shown. There were unkind remarks about the 
ridiculous microscopic "playgrounds'" of our schools. 

The report then proceeded to toll what might be done about it. something like 
this. First, to decide upon the general locality within which the local park 
is needed, to examine carefully the assessed valuations of property within the 
locality, and to select (tentatively) one or more sites which seem promising as 
to location and cheapness. Then, second, to obtain options on such of the land 
as it seems possible to obtain reasonably. Third, to ask publicly for the tender 
of lands for park purposes in the locality, and to hold public hearings thereon. 
And finally, guided by the information secured, to take steps for the securing 
of the land needed by condemnation proceedings. 

Something is said about the desirability, in sections where buildings must 
be crowded, of crowding them to some purpose ; that is, of so grouping them 
as to give a common court, and it is suggested that this might be a plan for 
.some unbuilt portions of the city. In closing this part of the subject, there is 
this touching reference to the "jjlaygrounds" of some of New Haven's schools: 

"Provision for this in New Haven up to the present time has apparently, 
been almost wholly ignored, as indicated by the table on the next page, which 
shows that the children, instead of having a provision of thirty or forty S(|nare 
feet of space in which to play, are in some cases crow'ded beyond all reason, 
merely dumped out and herded between classes or scattered after school." 

The city was complimented for its wisdom in having secured so much land in 
East and We.st Rock parks, Edgewood and Beaver Pond pai'ks, but was respect- 
fully reminded that it ought to get more without delay. It was hinted in this con- 
nection that the New Haven Water Company is more acquisitive and exclusive 
in its monopoly of land and scenery than the adequate protection of the water- 
sheds demands. The authors were keen on the need of the public for parks. 
It appears that they did not know- the New Haven Water Company, the demands 
on its system and the success it has had in providing a satisfactory water sup- 
ply, as well as do some of their fellow citizens. 

So the report did, in its specific suggestions, advocate not only the getting 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 79 

hold, iu some way, of Lake Saltoustall watershed, Lake AVhituey shores and 
reservation, Lake Wiiitergreeu watershed aud Maltby Ridge Parkway, but of 
Allingtown Ridge and Allingtown Hill, Greist's Pond and Cherry Hill, Monto- 
wese aud Eoxou parkways and Peter 's Rock Reservation. These are iu the outer 
circle of park additions. 

There was in the main praise for the system of imier parks which we now 
have, aud suggestions of the sort which the park commissiouers have been car- 
rying out as fast as they could get the money. There were recommendations 
for further acquisitions, such as Springside Valley, Pine Rock, Highwood, Win- 
chester lakes and Winchester Parkway, and the advice, already adopted, to 
get the Mill River marshes. It was suggested that considerably more area be 
.secured in the vicinity of the Quinnipiac basin, in the direction of East Haven 
and Branford, at Morris Cove and at Savin Rock, in cheerful disregard of the 
fact that many of these suggestions — and in fact others all the way back — refer 
to lands entirely out of the New Haven jurisdiction. 

Some of the specific suggestions for improvement "'in the heart of the city" 
must suffice for completing this digest of a highly important report. A beginning 
is made at the Green. "The churches should be restored to their original appear- 
ance." (Center has already taken the hint.) There should be a public comfort 
station; an elTort has been made to secure this, but in vain. The band stand 
should be rebuilt; we gather that the present one isn't dignified. There is a 
suggestion out of which has been evolved the present "mall" at the lower end 
of the Green. There should be some control of the height of the jDublic build- 
ings around the Green. 

Some .space was given to plans for a plaza at the new railroad station, and 
to the elaboration of the approach to it. Then there was talk of a widened 
Commerce Street, of a new armory, of a Temple Street subway, of a "bee line" 
avenue from the station to College and Temple. A wave of economy has since 
swept away most of these thoughts. 

The remainder of the principal .suggestions may be thus summarized : 

Widen Orange Street from Crown to George, passing it tlirough the Second 
Regiment Armory. 

Extend Union Street at each end. 

Widen and extend Kimberly Avenue, with considerable reference to West 
Haven. 

Raise and widen Edgewood Avenue and extend it through Westville. (This 
has in part already been done.) 

Widen Water Street to at least double its present proportions. 

Eliminate the Belle Dock grade crossing and widen or replace with a new one 
Tomlinson bridge. 



CHAPTER XI 
NEW HAVEN GREEN 

ITS ORIGIN, OWNERSHIP AND PRESERVATION INTACT — ITS HISTORY AND ITS DEVELOP- 
MENT — ITS RELIGIOUS, EDUCATIONAL, CIVIC AND OTHER USES 



Probably all parts of the woods looked alike to that group of settlers who 
landed from the boats of the Hector on the banks of the West creek. If they 
could have looked forward a few years, or even a few months, they would have 
gone through the forest for a half mile or so to the northeast of where they came 
ashore, to find a spot for their first Sunday worsliip. In short, they would have 
located the center of what was afterward to l)e the Green, and holding their 
first public worship there, have made the succession unbroken. But it was 
getti)ij, late on Saturday when they got their goods ashore, and the shadows 
of the Sabbath were upon them. So they were fain to gather around their pastor 
and teacher the next day, as it turned out, under a fine old oak that was not 
far from the bank of the creek. It may be that they worshipped there on 
several Sundays of the summer that was just opening. They had no better 
place for some time. 

It may not have been so many months after that first worship that the Green 
was laid out. Henry T. Blake confidently says that it was in June or July of 
the same year that John Brockett laid out the city. We have already seen 
how he surveyed his nine equal squares, and made the Market Place their center. 
That, of course, was a mere survey, for all the tract was untouched wilderness, 
but work was begun in clearing and building at once. As one of the first needs 
was a place of worship, and as it had been decided that this was to be on the 
Market Place, we may assume that its lines were early defined on something more 
than paper. 

The Green as we know it now is an almost exactly square plot sixteen and 
five-hundredths acres in area, about 840 feet to a side, and little more than 
two-thirds of a mile around. It may be that John Brockett 's survey was wholly 
accurate, but it was easy, in the 132 years before the Green was actuall.v fenced 
in. for the lines to become displaced. At an^- rate, we know by measurement 
that the College Street side is twenty feet shorter than the Chapel Street, and ten 
feet shorter than the Elm Street. 

80 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 81 

It is hard in our time to get the point of view of the Davenport colonists in 
laying out this square, and reserving it to the purposes they did. They called 
it the Market Place, and we know so little of their meaning that this does not 
convey an adequate idea. It was not to he a park, for the modern conception 
of a park had not dawned. It was not to be a "common" after the manner of 
Boston's, though they had lately come from there. Probably the clearest idea 
of what they had in mind is given in the quotation which Mr. Blake makes in 
his "'Chronicles" from Rev. Dr. P'rancis Bacon's civic oration on May 30, 1879: 

"A place for public buildings, for military parades and exercises, for the 
meeting of buyers and sellers, for the concourse of the people, for all such public 
uses as were served of old by the Forum at Rome and the 'Agora' (called in our 
English Bible 'the market') at Athens, and in more recent times by the great 
square of St. Mark in Venice: or liy the 'market place' in many a city of those 
low countries, with which some of our foiuiders had been familiar ])efore their 
coming to this New World." 

All these ideals and more the "Market Place," the Green, tlie public square, 
the common, if you will, has served in its three hundred years. And more, for 
these founders of New Haven were of a very independent sort, who proposed 
to found a church-state-university — undreamed of trinity — such as the Old 
World had not known and the New World had not conceived. A study of the 
ends which the Green has served, more particulai-ly in its first two centuries, 
but hardly less in recent times, will convince that one could hardly find in all 
this land sixteen acres condensing moi"e of unfolding life and tradition and 
history and destiny than here is held. 

Here, as Mr. Blake eloquently says, "six generations educated their children 
and buried their dead." Here, as the heart and soul of the community that 
was to be, the first edifice for the worshiji of God was builcled, and here it was 
to remain through the centuries for the worship of God and the service of man. 
Here was to be the political and civic forum of the people, and here it has been 
until now. Here was to be the New World field of Mars, and here have, as a 
matter of fact, from the seventeenth centurj' to the twentieth, gathered the 
soldiers of this community for their training, for their reviews, for their start 
for tlie duty of "making the world safe for democracy." Here was to be the 
education campus, and here in very truth it has remained, though the 
great university has established its own hard by. Here was to be the site of 
temples of justice and of legislation, and for two centuries and a half the Green 
was not without a court house or state house ; while their visible form is gone, 
their memory still remains. Here was to be a market place, and for that the 
Green literally was used for a considerable part of its early history. The 
Market Place meant more, however, than a mere place of barter. It was a social 
center, a field where the people should gather for fairs and gala days, a rallying 
ground for the children, and these the Green has been. Here, finall.y, was to 
be the place of burial, and here, indeed, for almost two centuries after its estab- 
lishment, "the rude forefathers of the hamlet slept." In a word, it can safely 



82 A MODERN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN 

be claimed as the institution which, more than anything else, makes New Haven 
unique among the communities. 

The character of the Greeu, its integrity and even its existence, have not been 
maintained without a struggle. But to this end its peculiar ownership 
has materially contributed. Mention is frequently made of the "Proprietors 
Committee," and its origin is of interest. The wealth that was in the Daven- 
port-Eaton party, when it lauded, was not evenly distributed. Some few were 
the capitalists of that £30,000 or thereabout, and they became the landholders. 
"The Free Planters," as they were called. The original nine squares which 
John Brockett laid out, the tract later puchased from ilomauguin, the sachem, 
and the much larger purchase made still later from Moutowese — all these were 
held by the same "Free Planters." The Market Place, of course, was included 
in these. The other lands were dispersed, in time, to private ownership. Tlie 
Market Place alone remained in their holding. 

Later they were called "the proprietors," or more formally. "The Proprie- 
tors of Common and Undivided Lands," of which, naturally, there were for 
many years other tracts than the Market Place. In 1810, by authority of the 
General A.ssembly, a "Proprietors Committee" of five, independent and self- 
perpetuating, was created to hold the Gi-een and such other property as might 
properly be classed with it. That body still exists, and is the proprietor of the 
Green. It is. as New Haven has more than once had occasion to know, the 
bulwark of its liberties as far as the Green is concerned. 

It is worth recalling that when New Haven became a city in 1784, its first 
charter contained a surprising provision giving the city power to exchange the 
upper part of the Green "for other lands, for highways or another Green, and 
to sell and dispose thereof for that purpose." It goes without saying that this 
power was never exercised, but the provision is interesting. It may be an indi- 
cation that in that earl.y day there was a tendency on the part of the people to 
take the Green and do with it as they pleased. New Haven has not wholly 
got over that tendency yet, but there is hope that it will. Mr. Blake, who is a 
good lawyer, concisely remarks that the provision in the old charter "was cer- 
tainly extraordinary, and of course totally invalid." It never reappeared after 
the first revision. 

The growth of New Haven and the creation of conditions never conceived of 
when one-ninth of the original city was devoted to the Market Place, has 
made a tremendous pressure on the Green. Here is a piece of central real estate 
whose monetary value is set at $.3,500,000. The traffic which passes one corner 
of it was at one time, liefore New Haven took steps to divert some of it, as 
heavy as that at any street comer in America. New Haven has outgrown the 
old width of the streets which surround the Green, which were not, considering 
that their projectors expected this to become a commercial metropolis of the New 
World, measured with a prophetic eye. Not once nor twice have the "prac- 
ticalists" of modern New Haven cast envious eyes on the Green as a traditional 
and useless adornment occupying space some of which might well be used for 
purposes of necessary traffic. But against every such suggestion or effort the 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 83 

proprietors of the Green, undoubtedly supported by the majority pulilic senti- 
ment of the city, have firmly stood. The most they would concede — and that, 
in the opinion of many, was too mueli — was the removal of the fence at the busy 
Church and Chapel street corner, and the paving of that part of the Green as 
a sort of concourse, which relieves the pressure and affords more easy crossing 
for those who pass from one trolley line to another. Thus a sort of "nibbling" 
process has begun at that corner, which may become serious if it goes too far. 

New Haven will have reason to remember the experience of 1917 as a result 
of the effort to encroach on the Green in another way. The multiplying motor 
car had la-ought about a use of the Green of which the makers of the Market 
Place little dreamed. That part of Temple Street which passes through it had 
become a popular parking place for automobiles. At times there would be a 
solid line of them all through the Green, on each side of Temple Street. The 
result was some congestion, and authoritative opinion said that there was need 
for more room. In front of the North Church and for a little distance to the 
south of it, the .street had some time previously, and for some reason (without 
authority, it appears) been widened several feet. The motorists and their friends 
now proposed to extend that widening all the way to Chapel Street, and also 
to add a .slice on the east side of the street. The result, as it appeared, would have 
been, not so much to widen the street, as to make possible the continued parking 
of cars there without interfering witli traffic. The people would have objected 
to any encroachment on the Green for any purpose but they more than objected 
to an encroachment to .serve the convenience of a few of the citizens, and they 
said so so strongly that the board of aldermen, after the mayor had once vetoed 
their act widening the street, receded from their position and forbade the 
further parking of cars on the Green. It was said by as good a lawyer as former 
Judge and Governor Simeon E. Baldwin that no action widening the street 
through the Green would in any case have stood in the courts. 

In all respects New Haven has stood against encroachment on the Green. 
Much as the city has needed a waiting room and shelter for the thousands who 
daily transfer at the Green corner between the various lines of street railway 
cars, the proposal to build it above the surface on the Green has been resisted 
from the first. It may be that eventually, observing more closely the largeness 
of the plan which its original makers had for the Green, there will be a yielding 
in this respect. 

II 

The settlers took New Haven as they found it. The sheltering harbor, and 
perhaps the natural location between the sentinel rocks, had attracted them. 
They were not terrified, if they knew, by the fact that a considerable portion of 
the point between the two creeks that emptied into the harbor west of the 
Quinnipiac was ordinary swamp. Neither did it prevent John Brockett from 
making:- the Market Place the center of his symmetrical nine siqaares that it was 
largely a swamp. The place where the pilgrims put their first church would 



84 A MODERN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN 

uot, by our standards, be L-onsidered a favorable cliureh site. .So we have to 
picture tlie Market Place of 1640 as a sandy, grassless tract to the northwest 
of the Meeting House, with rough stumps of trees between the forest survivors 
on its partly cleared area. But more dismal was the prospect from the front 
of the Meeting House. There, where the trees had been cleared off, their stumps 
stood out of just a plain, unrouiantic swamp, where the "peepers" peeped to 
herald the spring, wiiere the frogs croaked later and where the mosquitoes grew 
at every favorable opportunity. Out of that swamp, at the southeast corner 
of the Ma)'kel Place, a sluggish brook started on its way, ueeessitatiu-.; a foot 
bridge over it to pass along what was later Church Street, but was then "Th'' 
Mill Higliway" as it started northward. There were two causeways across the 
marsh of the lower Green, one coming from "Mr. Davenport's Walk," the 
private wa.v fi-om the rear of the pastor's house on lower Elm Street, and the 
other coming just where Governor Eaton would be likely to enter the Green 
in coming from his tine residence across the wa.v. There was a stockade, if we 
ma.v believe the most careful authorities, around tlie outside of the nine squares, 
and each of the other squares had its paling, but the Green enjoyed the 
doubtful distinction of having not even a railing to mark its boundary lines. 
Where the Green ended and Church or Chapel or College or Elm Street began 
was a matter for guessing. It was, in one sense, much of a "common." 

It liad its common and constant uses. On Sunday, the great day of the week, 
the roll of the first and the second drum, calling the people to worship, sounded 
from the turret of that great, square, cheerless first Meeting House in the exact 
center of the Market Place. Tliere the people gathered, earlier in the morning 
tlian tlie present luxurious church hour of eleven o'clock, we may well believe, 
since they liad to sit through a two-hour prayer and a two-hour sermon in addition 
to long expositions of the Scriptures, and deliberately "lined" hymns, and get 
through by noon. After an hour for some refreshment and warmth, which most 
of them got in their houses, it seems probaltle — this was before the da.ys of long 
journeys to the church — they reassemliled for a sei'viee very like unto the first. 
The chiUlreu, ranged on tlie pulpit stairs or along the sides of the room, must 
have yearned to look out on the pleasant scener.y of the Market Place, a wicked- 
ness for wliich they were sternl.y reproved, no doubt. In the short winter days, 
the closing numbers of the afternoon service must often have been in the dusk, 
or worse, and tlie people picked their way liomeward in the dark, having very 
decidedly "made a day of it." Yes, the people did use their Green on Sundays, 
and in a way niatei-ially different from its use now on a summer da,^■, when the 
uHiltitudcs i-est on the ]iark l)enches or on the grass, largely unlieeding tlie call 
of the churches. 

There were other sojourns on the Green in tliose days even more unpleasant, 
however. Governor Eaton meted out stern justice to the offenders brought l>efore 
him. and ruled tlie people with as stern a hand on the other six da.ys as Pastor 
Davenport did on tlie seventh. The stocks and the pillory were familiar features 
of the landscape of the upper Green, nearl.y opposite where Farnam Hall now 
stands. They were seldom witliout an occupant, following Governor Eaton's 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 85 

court sessions. The "Gaol" stood nearly east of them, close by where now runs 
the walk which emerges from the Green at the corner of College and Elm. It 
had its frequent sojourners, too. There was a Watch house hard by it, for with 
the Gaol and the pillory and the stocks and an occasionally used whipping post, 
that part of the ilarket Place was a busy spot a good deal of the week. \Ve 
may suppose that this was as attractive a spot for the more or less idle youth 
of the town, and for all the youth and some of the elders who could get a spare 
moment to see the show, as some of the "movie"' theaters further down town 
now are. 

In appearance the old ]\larket Place changed but slowly. Tiie old stumps 
wore away with the years, the swamp gradually filled. But we may imagine 
that up to the end of the seventeenth century there was little definite improve- 
ment. The ^larket Place was for use, not for ornament. New Haven was having 
sufficient difficulty in maintaining its existence. When the colony legislative 
body met in New Haven, it used the old S(|uare Meeting House in the center of 
the Green. It was in 1719 that the first state house M'as built, on the northwest 
corner, nearly opposite the present Battell Chapel. It was not until 1769 that 
the Pair Haven Society built the predecessor of the present North Church, and 
still later that tlie first Trinity Church was built. Long before this, soon after 
the original Meeting House was Iniilt, in fact, there was a cabin sehoolhouse 
near where the North Church now stand.s — that was where Ezekiel Cheever 
had his brief educational career in New Haven. It seems to have been John 
Davenport's plan to keep the school as a feature of the Market Place, but that 
use of the square declined nnieh earlier than the others. This first state house, 
later used for a county house, was still later Tised for a town house for several 
years, being taken down about 1785 or 1790. 

It seems to have been about 1759 that the first positive attempt was made 
to beautify the Green. A row of trees planted all around the square flourished 
so well that they were making a good showing twenty years later. The efl'ect 
of the thus beautified Green was such tliat it is said to have been largely instru- 
mental in inducing the remark of General Garth, wlio led the British invasion 
of New Haven in 1779, that the city was "too pretty to burn." It sounds like 
a fairy tale, but if there is any truth in it, the New Haven of that time had 
reason to appreciate its Green. 

This planting of the Green with shade trees was a definite part of the begin- 
ning of the work of James Hillhouse the elder, and of the Rev. David Austin 
(later known as the founder of Austin, Texas) to make New Haven the "City of 
Elms." We hear of other inner rows of ti'ees on the east and west sides of fhe 
Green which they planted in 1796. More trees were planted in 1808, just 
which seems not wholly clear. But it is probable that about this time was 
started that Temple Street archway which was the pride of the "City of Elms" 
in the fourth quarter of the nineteenth century. In 1839 the common council 
oi'dered 150 elms and maples planted on the Green. 

There seems to have been at least one definite attempt to make the Green a 
raai-ket place in tlie literal sense. In 1785 a Market House was built on Chapel 



86 A MODERN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN 

Street at the southeast corner. The boundary lines were indistinct as late as 
that, and there is reason to suppose that this occupied a part oi' the Green's 
surface. But there were other markets more conveniently situated, and there is 
no evidence that this one had a prosperous existence. Apparently it was discon- 
tinued after a few years, and soon disappeared altogether. 

The Green was first fenced in 1800. That fence was of a type which came, 
perhaps in imitation of New Haven, to be characteristic of the village green in 
all New England towns. Squared and pointed posts supported a double row of 
those square rails, set with the edges upward, the whole painted white. That, it 
appears, was the orthodox green fence. Wooster Square had one like it, as we 
shall see. This fence stood until 1846, when it was replaced by the present 
stone posts and iron rails. 

The fence did not keep out the foraging horses and cattle, which continued 
to be pastured on the Green until August, 1821, after which the custom was 
discouraged. But the Common Council thought it necessary in 1827 to direct 
the committee in charge of the pulilie square to prevent horses and cattle from 
feeding on the Green. The swamp did not disappear all at once, and as late 
as 1799 there was too much water there, evidently, for permission — or perhaps 
it was an order — was then given to make water courses for carrying off the 
water. "It was more or less boggy until after 1820," Mr. Blake briefly remarks. 
From the time the first member of the Davenpoi't-Eaton party passed away- 
until 1797 the original Meeting House churchyard was in the Green back of 
Center Church. In the course of that 160 years the city of the dead easily 
became a large one. It was plain enough that unless the Green was to be devoted 
wholly to that purpose, some other burial ground must be found. Grove Street 
Cemetery was opened in 1797, and there probably were few burials on the Green 
after that. There surely were none after 1812. In 1821, or thereabout, most 
of the monuments were removed to Grove Street Cemetery. In 1849, the 
Dixwell monument was erected in the rear of Center Church. 

Street lights, as we know them, distinctly belong to the modern New Haven, 
The streets were lighted by gas until about the middle of the nineteenth cen- 
tury ; the Green was fir.st lighted by gas in 1855. When New Haven changed to 
electricity, the Green shared in the change. Of the "Great White Way" the 
Green got only the reflected light, though on not a few special occasions in the 
early part of tlie twentieth century the Green has been brilliantly and artistic- 
ally lighted, as on Fourths of July, and times of welcome to distinguished 
visitors. The lower Green, with the Liberty pole in the center, lends itself 
very favorably to that sort of decoration, and many times in recent years the 
Green at night has presented a scene of beauty long to be remembered. 

Of course the orthodox green everywhere has to have a "Liberty pole." 
This does not happen so, but is the definite result of the activities of a society 
known as the "Sons of Liberty," which came into existence at the time of the 
Revolutionary war, and made it its business to see that every town had a 
Liberty pole. The Green got its pole in 1775 or 1776, but the British soldiers 
who visited the town three or four years later probably saw to its taking down. 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 87 

even if they did spare tlie towa from burning. The pole was restored soon 
afterward. 

Public wells were an institution in the old New England town, and New 
Haven had its share, on the Green. There have been live wells on the Green in 
its time — all of blessed memory now. Two of these were tire wells, and did not 
.imouut to much. Another served for a considerable time. The fourth was the 
familiar old "'town pump" of a century, at the corner of Church and Chapel. 

The oldest well was dug nobody knows when in the vicinity of the old ' ' gaol. ' " 
Probably it slaked the thii-st of many sufferers, some of them in the pillory 
or the stocks, perhaps. It was closed somewhere between 1840 and 1850. The 
two fire wells stood, the first about 1797, at the corner of Chapel and Temple 
streets, and the other in 1819 near the corner of Elm and Temple streets. They 
w-ere usually dry, we are told. Perhaps this was from the drain of fire use, but 
it is more likely that they did not strike those unfailing springs which fed the 
swamp of old at the lower corner of the Green. They disappeared long ago. 

The well so many have known, for whose demise so many mourned, was dug 
in 1813 at the corner of Church and Chapel streets. Its familiar canopy and 
three-handled pump were erected in 1878, though the working parts of the 
pump must have had occasional renewal in the almost constant use it received 
for more than thirty years afterward. For the last two decades of the use of 
this well New Plaven 's size, and the increasing contamination of the soil and 
the spring sources, were such as to make its water decidedly dangerous to use, 
but the people, scorning typhoid or anything like it, clung to the dear old pump. 
Its water was cool in summer, and they liked it. Many pitchers came to its 
fountain in the 3'ears of its existence, even to the last. At length the city, 
despite protests, discontinued it in 1913. 

^Meanwhile, the Bennett fountain's classic Greek temple, a gift of the late 
Philo S. Bennett, was erected at this corner in 1908. It never enjoyed the 
popularity of the well, for its stream is reservoir water. A "bubbler," fed from 
the same source, now stands near where the old pump was. 

Not so many people knew of the fifth well, and many of these have forgotten 
it. In his last term as mayor, about 1907, it seemed good to the Hon. John P. 
Studley to sink an artesian well at this corner, not many feet from the old pump. 
At a considerable expense, he drove a pipe down about 100 feet, and got a good 
flow of water. No pump was ever attached to it, for it was demonstrated that 
water from so large a spring would be worse contaminated than water from the 
old one. and the well was some time ago covered up. 

Ill 

In more senses than is commonly realized the Green has from the first been 
the heart and center of the life of New Haven. It was so in 1640, when the 300 
or thereaboiit of Davenport's little company gathered from their nine squares 
with their 144 acres to worship on Sunday at the Meeting House on the Market 
Place. It is so in 1917. when a city of perhaps 175.000 people, living spread 



88 A MODERN HISTORY OF NEAV HAVEN 

over 12,000 acres, comprising some fifty nationalities, sends all sorts of its people 
on Sunday either to worship in the churches on the Green, to rest on the park 
seats in the shade of its trees, or to stretch with their wives and children on 
its grass. 

These are the obvious uses. It has in its time served many purposes, and 
serves them now. Its utility and sentiment and historical and community im- 
portance do not in the least diminish with the years. It was from the first, as 
we have seen, a religious center. The original church has had three edifices there. 
The third, the noble Center Church which we see today, was erected in 1813. 
Trinity Church's handsome edifice, the second in its history, was built in 1814. 
The present North, or United Church building, standing near the site of the 
Fair Haven Church, also was erected in 1814. 

There was another church on the Green — two of them, in fact. It is familiar 
history, of course, that the original building of the First Methodist Church stood 
on the Green. There was more or less of an unpleasant looking askance, as 
late as 1821. of the old Congregational churches toward the Methodists, but there 
seems to have been no opposition to the erection of a church of this denomination 
there. It was probably because there was more room there — the old town house 
and prison and the other marks of crude penal practices, had long since dis- 
appeared — that the northwest corner of the Green was chosen. There the 
Methodists erected their first building. 

No doubt it was an old story, familiar to au earlier generation, which 
Mr. Blake delightfully revived in his "Chronicles," about what happened to 
this church when it was fir.st erected. The sinful pretense of the building they 
had planned seems to have filled the souls of the Methodist brethren with many 
misgivings. As we see it in the pictures, it was a square, bare building, without 
anything like a spire, looking for all the world like a barn except for its liberal 
supply of windows. Yet the brethren feared it would be too decorative. And 
the officiating elder prayed, we are told, that if it was not in accordance with 
Divine will the four winds of heaven might level it with the ground. The 
brethren might have been wiser in their generation, for they seem not to have 
completely finished the braces. And the very next day the wind arrived from 
heaven in the shape of the celebrated gale of September, 1821, and it was 
entirely sufficient. It laid the bricks of the edifice as flat as before they had 
even .seen mortar. 

The brethren appear not to have accepted this exactly as an answer to the 
prayer, or even as a warning against sinful display. Perhaps they compared 
it with the ornate churches in the center of the Green, and did some thinking. 
At any rate, they at once began to relay their bricks in the same spot, and 
finished the rebuilding a year later. There was another dedicatory prayer, 
but it is said to have been more caiitious. This building stood iintil 1848, when 
the people changed to their present building and site. It is noticeable that no 
compunction existed then against choosing a good type of architecture. 

The Green has always been, as it was intended to be, a political and civic 
forum for the community. It never served, as the faithful of the Davenport 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 89 

party are said to have expected it to serve, as a gathering place for the people 
on Christ's second coming, but many a gathering in which his patriotic soul 
delighted has it seen in its three hundred years. Whenever the people would 
gather, there they have found room. Independence days have found mighty 
multitudes there of those who, though of many lands and tongues, became one 
on its free soil. The Green has always been the arena of free speech — too free 
speech, it has seemed at times. All political parties have been permitted to 
present their arguments there. Though New Haven and New England were 
against him, and though the young men of Yale hovered around and more or less 
positively voiced their disapproval, Mr. Bryan repeatedly spoke on the Green' 
in his tours preliminary to his defeats. Hiram Johnson presented there in 1912 
the claims of Mr. Roosevelt. It has seen many stirring scenes, heard much 
fervid eloquence, and still remains to serve as a gathering place for such of the 
people as would hear any message of citizenship. 

In a distinct and conspicuous sense, the Green has been an educational 
camj)us. John Davenport, it may be, would have erected his college on the 
Market Place, if he had achieved it in his time. It was not to be then, and 
when it did come, it was for sufficient reasons to be elsewhere. Even Daven- 
port 's more primary educational system did not long flourish on the Green. 
The common meeting ground of all the people was to serve the community's 
educational ends more broadly. It had, to be sure, the first schoolhouse in New 
Haven, built very soon after the first Meeting House. Hopkins Grammar School - 
was there, too, and served through fifteen decades of the colony's struggling 
educational beginnings. We find, moi-eover. that the first town library, about'' 
1661, was housed in this first school building. The building remained for some 
time after that, and the Green apparently was regarded as the place of educa- 
tion, at least until some time after the appearance of Yale in New Haven. 

Yale has from the beginning had direct relations with the Green. It was in 
the old Meeting House on the Market Place that the General As.sembly of 1701 
confirmed the charter prepared by James Pierpont and his associates. It was 
on that same I\Iarket Place, in the fleeting House or in one or another of the 
succeeding state houses, that the General Assembly passed most of the otlier 
acts vitally affecting the progress of the college. It was in Center Church that 
the college, up to the time when Woolsey Hall was completed soon after 1900, 
held its annual commencement exercises. There still the scholastic procession 
forms which annually proceeds to Woolsey Hall. There the students of the 
college attended church until well on in the nineteenth century. New Yale's 
first im))rcssion of old Yale is generally gained from the Green, and many a 
stiident dweller on the east side of the old cpiadrangle found inspiration during 
his four years, from the view his windows afforded of the fine old square. There 
the students have been wont to gather when they would "gambol on the Green," 
and there have been gatherings of them there, as we have seen, that did them less 
than credit. But Yale continues to have a more or less sentimental interest in 
the Green, and feels, Avithnut challenge from the people, a sort of joint pro- 
prietorship. 



90 A MODERN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN 

For two centuries the Green was the seat of judicial tribunals, and still is, 
in a sense. Such judicial standing as the old gaol, stocks, pillory and watch 
house, had, was there maintained at the very first, though Governor Eaton, it 
seems, had his seat of office in his imposing house on Elm Street. The Meeting 
House, being the only adequate public building for almost all of the first cen- 
tury, served as the state house as well, when the legislature met in New Haven, 
up to 1719, when the first state house was built near the coi-ner of College and 
Elm streets. It served until 1763, when the second, as we have seen, was 
erected on Temple Street, between the first Trinity Church and Center Church's 
predecessor. It disappeared in 1828, to give place to the last state house which 
the Green saw, built in 1831. It stood, as many of the residents of New Haven 
well recall, on the slope to the westward of Center Church. Its use as a state 
house was discontinued, of course, when New Haven ceased to be the joint 
capital, but the sentiment of New Haven and the architectural dignity of the 
building preserved it until 1889. There are many who wish it had been pre- 
served longer. The not generally regretted tendency, however, has been to 
keep the modern Green clear of buildings. All of New Haven's chief judicial 
and legislative buildings have always overlooked, and still overlook, the Green. 

The Green has served as the "ge"neral training ground" of tlie colony days, 
the military field of later times. There were gathered and drilled such forces 
as New Haven furnished for the help of its neighbors in the Indian trouble 
days before the Revolution. There the "minute men" rallied. There, on an 
occasion which New Haven is not permitted to forget, the Foot Guards were 
drawn up after their victorious encounter with the selectmen and the receipt 
of their supply of powder, and received pastoral admonition and spiritual 
speeding on their mi.ssion from the Rev. Jonathan Edwards. 

It was on the Green, that is, in Center Church, that the citizens met in 1779 
to devise ways and means to defend the town against the British invasion that 
was on the way. It was there, probably, that the British invaders issued their 
futile proclamation of their king's sovereignty over everything in sight. It 
was there, certainly, that they received their impression that New Haven was 
"too pretty to burn." It was on the Green, ten years later, that the exultant 
people gathered to welcome the nation's hero of the war, and its first president. 
General Washington. 

In was on the Green, when three-quarters of a century later the clouds of 
the Civil war lowered, that the defenders of the T^nion met when making ready 
to go to the battle front. It was there, in the half century following, that New 
Haven held all its military reviews and demonstrations. It was never a field 
more seeming martial than in the thrilling months following the American 
recognition of war in 1917, when college men and townsmen alike drilled there 
daily in preparation for the service of their country on a foreign field. 

The Green has often afforded a meeting place for the children, in jubilees, 
Sunday school gatherings, meetings of school children, folk dances and the like, 
in this respect fulfilling the mission of the Old World market place. Two 
notable occasions of the sort were the Children's Jubilee, on July 23, 1851, when 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 91 

fourteen Sunday schools assembled on the Green after a short parade ; and 
again on October 8, 1916, when the Green was the objective point of the gi'eat 
Sunday school parade which was a part of the advertising convention of the 
New Haven Publicity Club. At that time fifty Sunday schools of New Haven 
and vicinity, with over 5,000 in line, paraded the principal streets of the city 
with floats and banners, and afterward gathered on the Green to sing, listen 
to addresses and receive banners of award. 

For several years the children of Lowell House and the playgrounds gave 
an annual exhibition of drills and fancy and folk dances on the Green, and few 
American cities have seen finer sights than these groups of children, presenting 
on this New World field of democracy some of the scenes familiar to the market 
places of the Old World. 

The Green in New Haven has been the model for many of the daughter towns • 
of the New Haven district. Guilford has a green almost as large, and as much 
of an institution in the town. Madison's green is its civic center, for generations 
the pride of the town. East Haven, West Haven, Branford, have their dis- 
tinctive if less imposing central squares. It would be interesting to know how 
many towns there are in New England, particularity in Connecticut, which got 
their inspiration from the Green at New Haven. For this is a peculiarly New- 
Haven institution, almost as peculiar to the town as are East and West Rocks 
and Yale University. It is with reason that the town regards it with peculiar 
pride, and jealously guards it from encroachment. 



CHAPTER XII 
NEW HAVEN'S PARK SYSTEM 

ITS MODERN DEVELOPMENT FROM EAST AND WEST ROCKS — THE INTERESTING SYSTEM 

OF CITY SQUARES 



New Haven had tlie (ireen, strange as it may seem, fnr almost two centuries 
and a half before it had a pulilie park. It had Wooster Square, a smaller imita- 
tion of the Green, for more than fifty years, but it never thought of it as we in 
these days think of a park. Perhaps the existence of these and other public 
squares, creating the impression that the city was well supplied with breathing 
spaces, delayed rather than helped the beginning of an adequate park system. 
The New Haven of 1880 had only sixty-three thousand people. It was a com- 
modiovis city, for that number, and they seemed to have plenty of room. The 
conception of the twentieth century public park had not dawned, at least not 
upon New Haven. 

Nor is it less surprising that when New Haven went into parks, it went in 
with a rush. The two notable landmarks. East and West Rock, which had dis- 
tinguished New Haven for three centuries and more, were the inspiration. Per- 
haps the idea of making them public parks did not dawn all at once. The good 
work was started in 1880. when the city received the gift of eighty-seven acres ad- 
joining East Rock. Gifts of money to the extent of twelve thousand dollai-s were 
received from public spirited citizens, and with that money East Rock was 
purchased from the then owner, the late Milton J. Stewart. It is a popular tradi- 
tion that he found the money just sufficient for the erection of the twelve identical 
and unlovely tenement houses, which for thirty-five years thereafter desperately 
clung to the edge of State Street next to the meadows near Mill River, and were 
commonly known as "Stewart's Folly." Anyway, he built them, and the 
story is that they did him little good. They passed from hand to hand, and 
from one stage of dissolution to another, until in the course of human events 
and park progress East Rock itself extended to them in 191.5. A short time 
afterward, the city erased the last of them, and poetic justice was complete. 

Several hundred acres were inehided in the first purchase, but it lay prac- 
tically idle in the hands of the city for several years. East Rock's summit was 
accessible to the good climber, and he was well repaid. But the attention of the 

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CELLAR AT GUILFORD IX «"HICH GOVERNOR WILLIAM LEETE CONCEALED THE 
REGICIDES CWFFE AND WHALLEY IN 1661 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 9S 

city in general was little attracted. The park project, however, had good 
friends. Henry T. Blake, who has made the Green historic by his "Chronicles," 
had the vision, and earnestly advocated the development of East Rock Park. 
He was ably seconded by others, chief among them Henry F. English of the 
present park commission. They kept the matter before the public until they 
secured funds for the laying out of a drive to the summit of East Rock. Next 
came the decision of the city to erect its soldiers' monument at the summit. There 
it was completed in 1887, at a total cost of $.50,000, and stands a.s a landmark 
that accents the notaljle eminence, verily — 

"First glimpse of home to the sailor, as he makes the liarbor round. 
And last slow, lingering vision, dear to the outward bound." 

It memorializes, with its bronze tablets bearing their names, the soldiers and 
sailors of New Haven who died in the great wars between 1766 and 1865. East 
Rock rises sheer 363 feet above the New Haven plain at its foot, and this shaft 
of granite tops it for 112 feet more. 

Bj' gradual additions the extent of East Rock, as the first and now the 
largest of New Haven's parks, has grown to 423.05 acres, and it embraces not 
only the whole of East Rock and Indian Head adjoining, but reaches over a 
broad strip of wood and meadow on each side of Mill River, extending from 
AVhitney Avenue and Lake Whitney on one side to Orange and State streets 
on the others. It is approached by drives from Whitney, Orange and State 
streets and the Ridge road. There are now within it six miles of footpaths and 
nearly seven and one-half miles of drives, three of which wind from different 
entrances easily toward the summit. 

Thus easily reached — two electric railwa.ys take those who cannot walk the 
two miles from city liall to the entrance of the park — East Rock Park is a 
favorite public resort at all but the hottest and the winter seasons of the year. 
Aside from the well kept drives and paths, and some lawns and a few flowers 
around the monument at the summit, nature has been mostly undisturbed, 
except over at that spot near the State Street entrance known as the "Zoo." 
There a miscellaneous and growing collection of animal and bird life is kept 
on exhibition, eompi-ising a number of bears, some guinea pigs, hares, peacocks, 
pheasants, guinea hens and bronze turkeys. This collection proves very popular 
with the public. 

From the brow of the rock itself lies the city spread out, a near view for all 
who care to see it. To the southward are the hai'bor and the Sound, with the 
white sand cliffs of Long Island looming up on a clear day. To the east and 
northeast are some glimpses of North Haven, with the "Sleeping Giant" always 
stretched in the distance. And the Hanging Hills of IMeriden are visible lie.yond, 
at times. It is a view that well repays the climb, and never grows old for the 
real admirer of New Haven's distinctive scenery. 

Next in size, next in age and doubtless next in importance is the twin park 
of West Rock. New Haven was well committed to the park business, and had 
East Rock well in hand, when it acquired the greater part of West Rock. Here, 
with the additions that have since been made, are 281 acres of historic ground. 



94 A MODEKN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN 

For West Koek, iu addition to its natural advantages of elevation and scenery, 
gets its interest from the fact that at one end of it is that split boulder known 
as "Judges' Cave." Whether or not there was in 1661 anything there that 
could properly be described as a cave nobody now living knows. But it is 
pretty certain that in those days West Rock was a fairly inaccessible spot, 
'perhaps fortified by wild beasts as well as by bad climbing against any minions 
• of the second Charles who may have come hunting the judges who condemned 
the first. Today, this cleft in the rocks might casually screen a man from sight, 
but liardly would effectually conceal him from a persistent hunter. It has, of 
course, been a constant subject of public curiosity. To stimulate some historical 
accuracy in the observation, the Connecticut Society of Colonial Wars recently 
erected a handsome bronze tablet on the face of the boulder, recording the fact 
that here in 1661 Goffe and Whalley, two of the regicide judges, were reputed 
to have found temporary refuge from the officers of King C'harles. Some time 
before that, however, some protection from the vandals and relic hunters was 
found necessary, and a substantial and not easily surmounted iron fence now 
requires the curious to observe the rock at a distance of at least six feet. 

West Rock, at its summit, is 410 feet above the level of the Sound. The 
view it gives of New Haven and the surrounding country is different, more 
varied and by many considered more attractive than that from East Rock. 
There is that same view of the Sound and of Long. Island, except that in the 
nearer distance the city and the harbor stretch out more in detail, and there is 
added the attractive part of modern New Haven known as Westville. There 
is also, to the north and northwest, the lordly sweep of the Woodbridge Hills. 
West Haven looms toward the southwest, and Lighthouse Point, \vith its white 
old shaft, tips the eastern edge of the harbor. It is easy, looking off over the 
city, to pick out the points of interest, with the Taft Hotel always as a range- 
finder. And to the east is the plain and hills of the west and northwest part 
of Hamden. 

West Rock Park has three miles of romantic drives, besides a convenient 
numlier of footpaths, by which it is approached from Whalley and Springside 
avenues. It is three miles from the center of the city, but electric cars help 
the weary. Here also nature has not been marred by attempts at art, and there 
are considerable areas of original woodland. 

New Haven's "show park," as it may justly be called, is Edgewood. On, 
either side of the West River, at a point where some years ago they straight- 
ened the river into the shape of a canal, the city has over 130 acres of meadow 
and knoll. It is at the extreme western end of the city proper, and about two 
miles from city hall. Edgewood Avenue, on its way to Westville, runs through 
it. For the better part of half a mile, leading from toward the center of the 
city, is a broad parkway, or mall, shaded by a double row of elm trees. It 
reaches entirely to the park, and is now a part of it. The entire street Is built 
up with fine residences. 

The original or upland part of the park, which was acquired in 1891, is laid 
out in lawns and borders of modern or old fashioned flowers. In one corner 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 95 

is a fine old oak tree, witli spreading, drooping branches, wliere tlie children love 
to play, and their parents love to sit on the circling benches and take in the shaded 
breeze. In the opposite corner is a children's playground, with swings, flying 
rings, see-saws and other paraphernalia. Down the bank toward where Chapel 
Street runs out past the Yale Bowl is an artificial lake, where black and white 
swans sail grandly, and ducks stand interestingly on their heads, while they 
pull worms out of the bottom. Then the park strikes the river, and it.s meadows 
make a straight course on either side toward Whalley Avenue. There is a good 
supply of fine drives. 

The late Felix Chillingworth was in a sense the father of this particular 
jiark, and was the urger, while serving on the Board of Aldermen, of much of 
its development. He was also instrumental in the digging of the "Chilling- 
worth well" at the east end of the park, and to it many pitchers came in the 
days when water from springs under the growing city was deemed safe for 
drinking purposes. The park also contains a most attractive rose garden and 
arbors, and its floral attractions arc steadily heightened as the yeai-s pass. 

[t IS the most accessible of the larger parks of New Haven, in one of the 
best of its residence districts, and naturally is visited by more petiplc in the 
year than are any of the others. Its name comes from that which "tiio master 
of Edgewood, " Donald G. iVIitehell, whose home for decades was in the south- 
western part of Westville, give to his estate and the surrounding region. 

In the New Haven of thirty or forty years ago there was a section that did 
not then look as though it would soon be an ornament or advantage to the city, 
t'l .say nothing of being good residence territoiy. It was the "slaughter house 
district" at its northwest corner. Here was a low sand plain where was the 
.slaughter house that provided the city with meat in the days before the western 
packing houses took all that responsibility. Stretching for a mile or so beyond 
it was an area of swamps and ponds, habitat of the beaver in the earlier days, 
habitat of the mosquito in any days. The whole region, in fact, was productive 
of mosquitos and flies if not of malaria. At the time when New Haven 's park 
development really began, it was in crying need of redemption. 

The upper part of the old slaughter house section was first taken, and more 
as fast as it might be improved. It was an expensive task, and the park depart- 
ment has never been over-supplied with funds. But gradually the waste has 
been reclaimed, and through gift and purchase the park, which was no more 
than a name for many years, recognizable as a park only on the maps, has 
assumed impressive proportions and appearance. There has been of late years 
the double purpose of building a park and eliminating one of the worst mos- 
quito-breeding territories in the city. The swamps and mar.shes have been 
drained, the underbrusli of the wooded parts has been cleared up, and new 
trees have been set where trees were needed. In the older part, the section now 
assumes the appearance of a park, with something like walks and lawns. There 
are football and baseball fields and general provisions for a playground. The 
total area now held here by the city puts Beaver Ponds into the first class of 



96 A MODERN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN 

New Haven's parks, with about 120 acres. It is the purpose of the city to 
considerably increase this area. 

Beaver Ponds Park, which now stretches from the junction of Goffe and 
County streets all the way to the Ilauiden line, is in a section of the city which 
is bound to develop and increasingly need a park. It has almost boundless 
possibilities, for the work which has been done so far has been mostly of the 
necessary sort, and the ornamental development of this large and somewhat 
diversified area is yet to begin. 

So much for New Haven's woodland and inland parks. It is a seaside city, 
and might be expected to have some notable marine parks. It seems to be 
the fate of seaside cities not to appreciate their possibilities. It is New Haven's 
misfortune, which it shares with most of the New Haven county coast towns, 
that it has permitted private ownership and enterprise to monopolize some of the 
best of its shore, of which it has none too much. New Haven has, nevertheless, 
some excellent seaside and waterside parks, most of them capable of extended 
development. 

"Oyster Point" they used to call it in an earlier day. Now that point of 
sand past which the channel of West River finds its tortuous way out to the 
harbor is "City Point." It is at the foot of Howard Avenue, an excellent 
residence street. On the southeastern side of this is Bay View, a finely developed 
marine park of over twenty-three acres, which the city acquired in 1894. It 
has wide and sloping lawns, and in the midst of it is a pretty lake basin, while 
shrubbery and trees, and seats enabling the wayfarer to rest in the shade and 
view the sea, add to its attractiveness. There is one drive which gives a good 
opportunity for seeing the park and the view. 

Only a block away from this park, on the West River side of the Point, is 
another tract which should be taken with it. though the park department is 
pleased to cla.ss it with city S()uares. That is the Kimberly Avenue playground, 
of seven acres, which is yet in an undeveloped state. It has great possibilities 
as a seaside playground, though bathing facilities are unfortunately lacking 
from both this and Bay View Park. 

Around the older part of the harbor district of New Haven has grown a con- 
gested residence district, largely inhaliitecl by citizens of foreign origin. No 
section more needs breathing spaces. Here, running from tlie center of Water 
Street out to the harljor front. Waterside Park does its best with its 171/4 acres. 
In 1892 the city began the laborious task of filling in the mud flats to make this 
park. Now it has a good surface of firm land, permanently protected by a sea 
wall, with seats and walks and a good start of protecting trees. There are play- 
grounds for the children who abound in the district. From the water end, one 
gets an excellent idea of what the busiest part of modern New Haven's harbor 
looks like. 

Halfway down the east shore of New Haven harbor there is an eminence 
whose basaltic elifiPs jut sharply into the water. It is called, of course, the 
Palisades. Commanding a sweep of the whole mouth of the harbor, its strategic 
advantage did not escape the authorities who felt the necessity of protecting 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 97 

New Haveu from iuvasiou. Here they built a fort, which they named iu honor 
of Nathan Hale. This was especially developed at the time of the Civil war, and 
the old earthworks built at that time are there still. There ai-e about foi'ty-uine 
acres. This is territory varying from low meadow to the cliffs of the Palisades, 
Of this the New Haven park department holds and has developed about thirty 
acres. This is territory var.ying from low meadow to the cliffs of the Palisades, 
wliich are directly on the water front. Fortunately, this tract includes some of 
the best sandy bathing beach around New Haven, and here the city has erected 
a considerable number of public bathing houses, whose facilities are improved 
up to and beyond their limit through the bathing season. In many ways. Fort 
Hale is one of the most fascinating of the city's parks. 

A short distance due northeast of here, at the southern point of the eminence 
which constitutes ''Fair Haveu Heights," is a point where it seemed to the 
patriots of New Haven in 1812 there ought to be a fort to repel British invasion. 
They threw up and armed their earthworks, and named it "Fort Woostsr, " 
after Gen. David B. Wooster of Revolutionary fame. The grass-covered 
ruins of the old fort show there today, and it gives name to Fort Wooster Park, 
a highland tract of seventeen acres, giving an almost ideal view of the Sound, 
the harbor and New Haven. Beacon Hill is an eminence whose opportunities well 
repay the short dim!) from where the trolley line passes on Woodward Avenue, 
or there are excellent drives running all through the park. Much of it is well 
wooded, and there has been some attention to landscape improvement. 

Just beyond where the old Yale boathouse used to squat on the flats as Mill 
River crossed East Chapel Street, there is a triangular plot of land called 
Quinnipiac Park. A few blocks beyond, the Quinnipiac River comes down to 
meet the harbor, and this is a sort of cove which comes in to meet Mill River. 
There are only eleven acres of it, being limited by Chapel Street, James Street 
and the harbor, but it is in a congested district that greatly needs a park. For 
the most part it is used for playground purposes, with little effort to develop 
any scenic effect, but there are seats where the weary can rest and get the harbor 
view. They used to be able to watch the Yale crew paddling around in the 
cove and coming to and from the boathouse. Now they see them at a little 
distance around the new Adee boathouse. 

Fair Haven proper is as yet inadequately provided with parks, but it has 
an excellent foundation for one in Clinton Park, the newest development of the 
system. Here are twelve acres, extending from Atwater to North Front Street, 
and having a frontage of 1,300 feet on the Quinnipiac River. It is just opposite 
the point where the stream swells to a lagoon or bay half a mile wide, making 
a body of water beautiful for view, excellent for boating and iu all respects 
attractive. The Quinnipiac up to this point and beyond is i-eally an arm of the 
harbor and scoured by the tides, so that here is a body of clean salt water, 
excellent for bathing as well as boating, and having a good beach. 

Clinton Parkway, a tree-shaded green covering the space between the inner 
sides of Peck and English streets, and extending eight blocks w'estward from the 
river to Ferry Street, makes a most attractive approach to this park. The 



98 A MODERN HISTORY OP NEW HAVEN 

Clinton Playground, covering the square bounded by Clinton Avenue, Maltby, 
Grafton and Chatham streets, is only two blocks south of the parkway. 

II 

New Haven has nineteen city squares, counting everything. Most of these, 
from the central Green down, were included in the jurisdiction turned over by 
the city to the park department on January 1, 1912. The Green has already been 
described. Next to the Green, in age and general importance, is Wooster Square, 
bounded by Chapel, Academy, Greene and Wooster streets. When it was opened 
in 1825, it was in the heart of the fashionable residence section of the city. 
It was a second Green, with its almost five acres similarly laid out, neatly fenced, 
probably with the same square-railed type of fence that seems to have been 
thought good form for greens. The stone posts and iron rails have displaced the 
white rails some time since. The square today is in the heart of the district 
occupied by New Haven's 35,000 or more people of Italian blood. It is adorned 
by an excellent statue of Christopher Columbus, which was presented to the city 
by its Italian citizens to commemorate the 400th anniversary of his great dis- 
covery. 

Joeelyn Square is a nice little miniature green of 2.60 acres occupying the 
city block between Walnut, Wallace, Humphrey and East streets. It is equipped 
with playground apparatvis, and serves an important purpose in one of the 
older crowded portions of the city. 

.Trowbridge Square is a bit of land between Cedar, Carlisle, Portsea and 
Salem streets. It measures 0.83 of an acre, and is equipped with some swings and 
other playground apparatus. A breathing spot in a congested district. 

Of the nature of the Green in their origin, and dating back to before the 
establishment of the park system, are the two Broadway squares. They are 
triangular bits which come in where Broadway spreads like a fan into Goffe 
Street, Whalley and Dixwell avenues. One of them has a small soldiers' and 
sailors' monument, in granite. Together they contain 0.87 of an acre. 

An irreg\ilar spreading of Goffe Street, between Foote and Orchard, makes 
a grass plot of 0.75 of an acre, which affords a playground to children and is 
known as Goffe Square. 

Hamilton Square is a long, narrow, enclosed strip on Hamilton Street, be- 
tween Locust and Mj'rtle. It contains 0.55 of an acre. 

Monitor Square is a handsome, fenced-in bit of green at the point where 
Derby Avenue leaves Chapel Street, the triangle between these two streets and 
Winthrop Avenue. It is adorned by, and in fact was created to shelter, the 
distinguished Bushnell-Ericsson memorial, erected to commemorate the service 
of Cornelius S. Bushnell, a son of Madison and New Haven, in making financially 
possible the building of the historic "Monitor." The square has 0.3.3 of an 
acre of ground. 

A minute bit of green at the triangle of Henry, Munson and Ashmun streets 
is called Henry Street plot. The surveyor says it contains 0.02 of an acre. 




SOLDIERS' MOXL.MIONT, KAST ROCK I'ARK. XEW HAVEX 



I 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 99 

Temple Square is where the electric cars swing down the grade from Whitney 
Avenue and presently find themselves on Church Street. It is bounded by Whit- 
ney, Temple and Trumbull, and measures 0.14 of an acre. 

Kimberly plot is another microscopic triangle containing all of 0.02 of an 
acre, at the junction of Kimberly Avenue and Lamberton Street. 

State Street plot, just twice as large as the above, is a little strip on State 
Street, at the junction of Lawrence and Mechanic. 

Away out near No. 1 Chapel Street is 0.06 of an acre of spare space between 
Ferry and Houston streets, so the city turfed and curbed it and called it Ferry 
Street plot. 

Clinton Parkway and Clinton Playground, already described, are parts of 
Clinton Park. They contain together 6.1 acres. 

Kimberly Playground has already been mentioned in connection with Bay 
View Park. It contains seven acres, irregular in shape, and imperfectly de- 
veloped. It has great possibilities, when filled and properly graded, for athletic 
use. 

Edgewood Parkway, counted for 4.4.5 acres, is a broad and handsome mall 
which leads westward for several blocks as an approach to Edgewood Park, 
and is now a part of it. 

Sherman plot, of 0.0-3 acres, is another convenient triangle, at the point 
where Sherman Avenue begins in conjunction with Winthrop Avenue and Oak 
Street, which it was more desirable to turf over than to pave. 

Defenders' Scjuare is as near an approach as it was possible to make to a 
hi.storic spot. It is only 0.64 of an acre in area, but it is near the place where 
the defenders of New Haven did their best to withstand the British invasion 
of July 5. 1779. It was not from the view of the threatening cannon which stood 
there, with its determined gun crew, that General Garth got the idea that New 
Haven ought to be spared for its beauty. In 1906 an effort was begun to secure 
an appropriation from the Legi.slature for help to build a monument to these 
defenders. A plaster model, in miniature, of the proposed group, which was 
placed in the lobby of the capitol at Hartford, received the compliment of 
being called by President Luther of Trinity, who was fir.st a state senator in 
1907, "a six-legged monstrosity." It is a modification of that gi-oup of three 
men, in life-size bronze, which now adorns Defenders' Square. 

Here, in all, is a park sj-stem consisting of ten public parks, with a total 
area of something over 1,074 acres. To it are added nineteen city squares, which 
include the central Green and the two playgi-ouuds, and increase the ai'ea 
to 1,111.03 acres. They are well distributed over nearly all sections of the city, 
so far as the limitations of the situation permit. They include some of the most 
unusual city parks in New England, an equipment of which no city of New 
Haven's size need be ashamed. The city squares alone, which include the im- 
mensely valuable central Green property, have a real estate valuation of 
$•3.676.03.5. The parks themselves, not being subject to taxation, have not 
recently been appraised. 



CHAPTER XIII 
NEW HAVEN'S CHARTERS 

HISTORY AND PROGRESS AND DEVELOPMENT FROM 1784 TO 1917 — CONSOLIDATION OP 
TOWN AND CITY AND THE HOME RULE ACT — RECENT REVISION EFFORTS 



Charter making, as a science, is modern. The charter, or more correctly, 
charters, which served as the legal foundation of New Haven in the years from 
1784 to the end of the nineteenth century were framed mainly on the constitu- 
tion idea. They did not, at least at the first, conceive of the city as a business 
institution or corporation. Nevertheless the city was made a corporation by these 
charters, and gradually acquired, in spite of this idea, a body of laws fitted for 
business management. Some stud,v of the development of these laws foi'ms an 
instructive background for the understanding of the modern city. 

If the original founders of our New England cities had not been so ready 
to conceive of the city as necessarily limited in area, a condensed portion of the 
town within which it was included, considerable trouble might have been saved 
in later years. Yet it seemed and probably was necessary, in forming the City 
of New Haven out of the somewhat rambling town that New Haven was in 1784, 
to be concise and constricted. So it was that the original bounds of the City 
of New Haven, as limited by the charter, read narrowly to us today. The 
western boundary was high-water mark on the east side of West River; the 
eastern was high-water mark on the east side of the harbor (continuing up 
Mill River as a boundary line, presumably) ; the southern a line running from 
City Point to Lighthouse Point; and the northern a line from Neck Bridge to the 
Whalley Avenue Bridge over West River. This, leaving the separation from 
Hamden somewhat indistinct, made the original New Haven a somewhat re- 
stricted, "chunk" of land with the Green, as at the first, pi-actically in its center. 

But it was in other respects that the first charter really was primintive. Per- 
haps the idea of the mayor continuing in ofSce without further election was not 
altogether wrong, but it surely was wrong to make the General Assembly the 
power to determine his tenure of office. Four aldermen and a common council 
of not more than twenty, were elected, and they were real city fathers. For 
observe some of the things they were required to do : Choose jurors, lay out 
highways, be the city court for the ti-ying of civil and criminal cases, and to 

100 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 101 

legislate by-laws for such matters as markets and commerce within the city, 
streets and highways, wharves, anchoring and mooring of vessels, trees planted 
for shade, ornament, convenience or use, and their fruit, trespasses committed 
in gardens, public walks and buildings, sweeping of chimneys and prevention of 
fires, burial of the dead, public lights and lamps, restraining geese and swine 
fi'om going at large, defining the qualifications in point of property of the mayor 
and the aldermen, fixing penalties for anyone elected to office and refusing to 
serve, determining the mode of taxation. 

It was an admirably condensed charter, albeit crude. It lasted thirty-seven 
years without radical revision, and it is not a little surprising that in that period 
it seemed necessary to the people of the city to make only nine amendments, 
most of them such as were inevitable 4o the gi'owth of the developing city. The 
revision of 1821 seems to have been at the motion of the General Assembly rather 
than due to a feeling in New Haven that a radical change was necessary. A 
uniform charter was passed for the cities of Hartford, New Haven, New London, 
Norwich and iliddletown. In each case it defined the territorial limits of the 
city (and New Haven's was not, so far as appears, then changed). It provided 
for annual meetings in each city to choose a mayor and four aldermen, but the 
former was still to hold office at the pleasure of the General Assembly. A com- 
mon council of not more than twenty was also elected annually. There were 
also other elected officers, and various provisions necessary to the management 
of a city, the whole being a decidedlj^ more modern document thaji that whieli 
New Haven adopted in 1781. 

In the next thirty-six years there were twenty-six amendments to this charter, 
the first important one limiting the term of mayor to one year (though the 
General A.ssembly still had the right to remove him sooner). At the same time 
there was an effort to do something for the defining of street and Iniilding 
lines. There were steadily developing provisions for the fire protection of the 
city. A provision'was made in 1843 for dividing the city into wards, but for 
some reason was repealed the following year. Wards were established, however, 
in 1853. Each was to have one alderman and five eouncilmen. In 1856 there 
appeared a public worry lest something should be done harming the integTity 
of the Green, for it was provided that there be no erection of any building on 
any of the public squares, even if the Proprietors' Committee did authorize it. 

Six wards were provided by the charter of 1857, each with an alderman 
and four eouncilmen. The municipal officers were somewhat as now elected. 
The Court of Common Council elected the street commissioner. Great and 
arduous duties w'cre still imposed upon this court, though of course it needs to 
be remembered that the population of the city was then only 3fi,000. I\rany de- 
tails lately ad.justed liy ordiiumce were still the concern of the comnion council. 
It had also to arrange for the municipal appropriations. 

The city was developing fast, however, and eleven yeai's later it seemed 
necessary to make another revision. ^leanwhile, there had been twelve amend- 
ments. In this period the population of the city had so run over the edges as 
to make legislation for the town, and the beginning of confusion necessary. 



102 A MODERN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN 

Six of the aiuendmeiits concerned the town, one of them providing for two 
outside wards, each with its alderman and four eouncilmen. In 1860 was 
incorporated the Westville School district, which still is a kingdom of its own. 
The city was glad enough, however, to have in 1861 the help of the town in the 
erection of a city hall. 

The revision of 1868 re-defined and slightly changed the boundaries of the 
city. It was bounded on the east by Mill River ; on the north by Hamden ; on 
the west by Dixwell Avenue and the east bank of the West River to Oyster 
Point, tlieii up by high-water mark to Tomlinson's liridge. This was reappor- 
tioned into six wards. At the same time it was decreed that aldermen and 
eouncilmen should sit as separate bodies. Then also was created a board of 
finance, a road commissioner and boards of fire and police commissioners, the 
police department being at the same time definitely created. It appears also 
that at this time the fire department was exalted (though perhaps some of the 
members did not so regard it) from a volunteer to a paid status. This charter 
was duly amended in the following year, and it was found necessary to make a 
revision in ninet.y-three sections of it. It was then made a crime for an alderman 
or a councilman to accept a fee for his vote; the mayor was given veto power. 
But of chief importance were the sections changing the provisions as to the 
City Court, and further raising the salaries of mayor and city officers, which 
had been elevated only the previous year. To obviate the necessity of a revision 
every time this popular change seemed desirable, it was therewith provided 
that a two-thirds vote of the common council might increase salaries. 

Then followed ten years very busy with amendments. No less than fifty, 
most of them of a routine nature, were adopted before the revision of 1881. One 
highly important one, in 1872, was the establishment of a board of harlior com- 
missioners, of five persons appointed by tlic governor. This act also defined the 
limits of New Haven harbor. A board of health was established for New Haven 
in the same year, consisting of six persons, three of them physicians, to be ap- 
pointed by the mayor. 

In 1872 the Borough of Fair Haven East was incorporated out of the Town 
of East Haven (for the Quiniiijnac liad until then been the eastern lioundary 
line of the town'). It is interesting also to note that in this busy legislative year 
a ferry was incorporated to run from "a convenient point in the City of New 
Haven to Lighthouse Point. ' ' 

The increase of the number of wards of the city to ten came in 1874. Also 
the common council was authorized to divide the wards into voting districts. 
It was at tliat time that the time of the city election was set for the first Monday 
in October, the term of office being two years. All appointments were to lie 
"yea" and "nay" by the common council. Tlie chairmen of the existing com- 
missions were at that time made ex-officio members of the board of aldermen and 
council, but could not vote. The city was divided into twelve wards in 1877, and 
the time of election was changed to the first Tuesday in December. The number 
of voting districts was increased to thirteen shortly after. 

It liecaino necessary in 1878 to do some legislating for the Borougli of Fair 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 103 

Haven East, aud from time to tiiii<? appear evidences tliat the dual existence of 
town and city was a double burden. In 1880 there was an important amendment 
incorporating East Rock park, with mention of the park commission, whii-h had 
been earlier created, hut without, evidently, a great burden of duties. In 1881 
there was considerable legislation concerning that part of New Haven outside 
of city limits. 

The revision of 1881 had to do with ninety-four sections, forty-six pages. 
It was fairly thorough and complete. The number of wards was not at that time 
changed, remaining at twelve. Mayor and all city officers were elected biennially 
in December. The duties of all officials were defined ; the mayor, as William S. 
Pardee dryly says in his "Charter and Amendments," "shall be chief executive 
and it shall be his duty to be vigilant." The charter of 1881 did not make the 
mayor an especially potent individual. It seems to have been largely a routine 
revision. The city was approaching the period when tinkering the charter 
became a fixed habit. Some of the more important features were a new align- 
ment and natural increase of salaries ; the provision that the aldermen and eoun- 
cilmen conld obviate the mayor's veto by a majority vote (more power for the 
mayor) ; the aldermen to fill all vacancies on boards and "of the same polities." 
Mayor conld sit with boards, and vote in case of tie ; Board of Compensation 
created ; some provision for building lines. 

There was no further general revision of the charter until that of 1897-1900, 
but it cannot be .said that it was left at rest. In the years from 1881 to 1900, 
no less than eighty distinct amendments and special laws were attached to the 
charter. Thorough revision of such a mass was inevitable, and it is readily con- 
ceded by all good .indges that the revision which went into effect in 1900 was 
needed and was a material step toward modern city government. It was a little 
too early, however, to participate in the radical advance in charter construction 
which has affected many cities of the country. Even if tha^t era had come in, 
New Haven's natural conservatism, probably, would have kept it back. 

The amendment period preceding this revision was not without materially 
important legislation. In 1883 there was an annexation to the Town of New 
Haven, so as to include that part of Springside (the new almshouse farm) which 
had belonged to the town of Hamden, and compensation to the latter therefor. 
There was other special legislation concerning the Town Farm. In 1884 the city 
was authorized to straighten the channel of West River from Derby Avenue tp 
the gi'cat bend above the old Derby railroad. This made for a river wliicli orig- 
inally was painfully crooked, a practically straight channel from a point north 
of Whalley Avenue to Oak Street, and a symmetrically curved one from there 
on to the great bend. It was also at that time provided that no sewer must empty 
into it except storm overflows. 

In 1885 there was provision for the biennial election of two members of the 
Board of Public Works, police commissioner and fire conunissioner. The next 
year the Public Library was established, with an appropriation of $10,000. In 
1887 a special law made the newly straightened channel of the West River the 



104 A MODERN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN 

boundary line of the city, also the l)oiindary line between the towns of New 
Haven and Orange from Derby Avenue to the Derby railroad. In 1889 New 
Haven was authorized to issue $200,000 park bonds, and Town Park commission 
was created — the new parks were outside of city limits. The same year Benja- 
min R. English, James Rice Winchell and Henry C. "White were appointed a 
committee to investigate the affairs of the Town of New Haven, and report at 
the next town uK^eting. ]More evidence, perhaps, of the unsatisfactory dual 
civic personality. 

Apparently there was another raise of city salaries in 1893 — anyway, the 
schedule was revised. Soon after it seemed best to limit the right to hold office 
in the City Court to those living within city limits. That same year there was 
legi-slation petitioning the Superior Court to condemn the toll rights on the 
Derby Turnpike. In 1893, also, the city was authorized to provide and main- 
tain a Contagious Disease Hospital — but it was not until almost twenty years 
later that the long fight as to where to place it let up sufficiently to allow New 
Haven to get the hospital. 

A civil service commission was created in 1895, and for several years per- 
mitted to pretend to be of some use in protecting New Haven officeholdei's 
against politics. Here the revision of 1881 was so amended that the Board of 
Public Works, the police and fire commissioners, were elected by the freemen 
instead of by the aldermen. The same year the amendment consolidating the 
Town and City of New Haven, to be referred to later, was first tried. It did 
not "take" until two years later, at the second trial in 1897. 

The revision of 1897 consisted of 204 sections, and was a complete and in 
some respects radical change. Following the consolidation, it provided for three 
new wards to include the annexed districts, increasing the total to fifteen. Both 
this and the revision of 1899, which was in a sense one with it, retained the Com- 
mon ( 'ouneil of one alderman and three councilmen, elected annually, from each 
Avard. The former gave the mayor considerable appointive power, as to corpora- 
tion counsel, sealer of weights and measures, citizen members of the Board of 
Finance, Police and Fire Commissioners, Director of Public Works, Park Com- 
mission. Health Board, Public Library Directors, Board of Education and Civil 
Service Board. But as the revision of 1S99 is the one of importance, and the 
one now in effect, that is the only one which need he further considered here. 
Jt contained 227 sections. 

The same radical change in appointive power of the mayor was continued, 
with some enlargements. The date of the city election was changed to April. 
The Boards of Finance, Police and Fire Service and Public Works were re- 
tained, the last to be divided into bureaus of streets, sewers, engineering and 
compensation. Parks, Public Health, Public Lilirary and Education were de- 
partments, as was Charities and Correction. The Civil Service Board was re- 
tained. Town clerk and registrar of Vital Statistics, along with the Board of 
Relief and Board of Assessors, the la.st appointed by the mayor, were inherited 
from the town government. The r<'vision of 1897 provided that a woman might 
be appointed to the Board of Education, and this was not altered in 1899. 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 105 

The most important amendment, save one, to this last charter was that in 
1901 which abolished the Board of Couneilmen and provided tliat on tlie first 
Tuesday of April in 1902 there should be elected six aldermen at large, and 
thereafter every second year six aldermen at large for two yeai-s, and that the 
odd-numbered wards should elect one alderman and the even-numbered wards 
one alderman every other year for a tenn of two years. 

The Permanent Pavement Connnission, whose fi\-e members the mayor ap- 
points, was created in 1901. A Connnission on Public ^Memorials was created in 
1905. The same year the date of election was changed from April to the first 
Mondaj' in October, where it has remained undisturbed for several elections. It 
was in 1911 that the Park Commission was given jurisdiction over the Green 
and all other public squares. 

The most important recent cliarter change was the Home Rule Bill, which 
was enacted in 1913. 

II • 

The bugbear of a generation was the dual and diiYering constitution of New 
Haven the town and New Haven the city. From 17S4 until three-quarters of 
a century later there was little dififieulty. But as soon as the population had 
completely overflowed to the towai, there began to be troulile. It was the worse 
because of the comparatively small area of the part of the town around the 
edges of the city. Had the town area of New Haven been great, as is the ca.se 
with many Connecticut towns containing cities, the crisis would not have come 
so early, but it would have arrived soon or late. The people living and owning 
property in the town outside of city limits wanted, of course, all the city privi- 
leges, improvements and advantages. But they did not pay city taxes or their 
equivalent, and of course the city could not permit them to have these things. 
The result was constant and growing friction. 

Then there was a conflict and expense of officials. The town claimed a sort 
of jurisdiction over the city, or at least some of the officials of the town neces- 
sarily had functions in the city. There was double cost and not a little confusion 
at elections. These were only a few of the disadvantages of a system which, 
being now of the past, may well be forgotten. Yet it took a good many years, 
and some patient work on the part of public men and public bodies, the Cham- 
ber of Commerce notable among the latter, to bring about the long agitated 
desideratum of consolidation. A well constructed bill was passed by the Legis- 
lature in 1895, but it was not acceptable to the majority of the voters on sub- 
mission. There were only a few minor changes, however, in the act sulimitted 
in 1897, and this time it was accepted. 

Consolidation consisted, of course, in making the boundaries of the ('ity of 
New Haven coterminous with wlmt had been the Town of New Haven. The 
duties as to highways, private ways, bridges and sewers which the town had 
borne were transferred to the city. A Department of Charities and Correction 



106 A MODEEN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN 

of four members, appointed b.y the Board of Aldermen (later by the mayor), 
took over that portion of the town's duties. The town officials retained, most of 
them required by stat^ law, W'ere three selectmen, town clerk, tax collector, 
registrar of Vital Statistics, Board of Assessors, Board of Relief, justices of the 
peace, grand jurors and constables. The property formerly held by the town 
was vested in the city. There was, however, this peculiarity, that the Westville 
school district, the South school distriet and the Borough of Fair Haven East 
were kept intact. But the cherished old town meeting wa.s, so far as New Haven 
was concerned, at an end. 

The second and successful eou.solidatioii bill had a few additions of compara- 
tively minor importance. It was accepted by a safe majority, and if everybody 
has not been happy ever since, the years have brought increasing satisfaction 
with the change, until the younger generation of voters finds it hard to conceive 
that there ever was a separation between city and town. Yet there are the still 
independent units of Westville and Fair Haven East to mar the perfection of 
con.solidation. and the city is steadily growing into them. Recently there has 
been a revival of effort for complete consolidation, and there are those who 
believe that it is near. 

In the first 130 ycHi's during which New Haven wa.s faithfully and constantly 
and hopefully amending and revising its charter, it was necessary on each occa- 
sion to go to the General AssemWy either in the State House on the Green or 
at Hartford, explain all about it and secure the consent of the majority to the 
change. There were two ways of looking at this exercise. Some regarded it as 
one of the greatest of winter sports to get the charter amended ; others believed 
that the matter of altering municipal laws to meet changing municipal needs 
was a matter of home business about which Hartford — where of late years it 
was always necessary to apply — had no concern. And when at the last it some- 
times became necessary to do some expert political bargaining to obtain the' 
most innocent and obvious charter change, the number grew of those who be- 
lieved that New Haven ought to have home rule. 

There was talk of this for years, which came to little result. The thing 
seemed like a more or le.ss elusive dream, pleasant to entertain, but not expected 
to turn to any reality. However, there was a growing feeling that New Haven 
could have home rule if it insisted. At any rate, William S. Pardee, a member 
of the General Assembly of 1913, determined to make a trial. He drew up a 
concise and, as he believed, comprehensive home rule bill of five sections, con- 
ferring on the freemen of New Haven the right to amend the charter of their 
city by initiative and referendum, without the advice or consent of the General 
Assembly. The bill went through on May 17, 1915, after a delay of over a ses- 
sion, and considerable doctoring of his second and essential section 

By this act it was provided that the Board of Aldermen or 30 per cent 
or more of the registered voters might initiate charter changes, to be voted 
upon by the electors at a special election. As passed, the act defined the powers 
of amendment under it as follows: 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 107 

''To provide the iiianner in which candidates fur th<? office of mayor or foi- 
any otlier office required by law to be filled by popular election may be nomi- 
nated for their respective ofifice,s, and that no pei-son unless nominated in accord- 
ance with such provisions shall be eligrible to such office. 

"To provide whether the mayor or any oth^r officer rei|uired to be elected 
by popular vote, shall be elected by plurality of votes cast, by cumulative voting, 
or in case of boards constituted of more than one member, by minority repre- 
sentation. 

"To provide how the Board of Aldermen shall be constituted, tht- numlier 
of its members, their qualitieations, tenure and terms of office, and for the elec- 
tion of any part or all of them at large or by wards, and the amount of their 
salaries or compensation, if any. 

"To provide that any officer of said city, now elected by popular vote, shall 
be chosen by appointment, excepting that the mayor, members of the Board of 
Aldermen, town clerk, members of the Board of Selectmen, registrars of voters, 
and justices of the peace shall continue to be elected by popular vote. 

"To provide how, by whom, when and in what manner any of the officer.s, 
boards, directors, commissioners and emploj^es of said city who are or may be 
subject to appointment and not to popular election, may be appointed, their 
qualifications, the tenns and conditions of the tenure of each. 

"To provide for the payment of .salaries or compensation of any officers of 
said city who are subject to appointment, and the amount of such salaries or 
compensation, or to provide by whom such salaries or compensation shall be 
determined and regulated. 

"To provide that the powers and duties given to or imposed upon any of the 
commissioners, boards, agents or employes of said city shall be exercised and 
performed by any other officer, board, agent or employe, including the power 
of appointing and employing other officers, agents and employes, excepting that 
the powers and duties, other than the power of appointment as herein otherwise 
authorized, of the mayor or Board of Aldermen, shall not be curtailed under the 
procedure authorized by this act, nor .shall the powers and duties of the town 
clerk. Board of Selectmen, registrars of voters, or justices of the peace, be in 
any respect curtailed. 

"To provide for the abolition of any office, the powers and duties of which 
shall be transferred to another officer, board or agent, and to provide for any 
new department, bureau or officer as may seem best for the exercise of the [low- 
ers and to perform the duties given to or imposed upon said city. 

"To provide that the mayor shall act as a member of the Board of Aldermen; 
that any or all of the powers and duties which might be exercised and performed 
by appointive officers, boards or agents may be exercised and perfonned by the 
Board of Aldermen in such manner as it may determine, either directly or 
through such agents as it may select or for whose selection it may provide. 

"To provide for a general revision of the charter which may include any 
of the amendments heroin authorized. 



108 A MODERN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN 

"To provide for pensions and pension funds for any class of employes of 
said city, and to apportion to any pension fund or to the general city income 
any license moneys payable to the city or to any pension fund." 

For the rest, the act provided that no amendment aft'ecting' the City Court 
could be passed, nor any affecting the duties of town clerk, assessors, registrar 
of Vital .Statistics or other officer whose office or duties are fixed by general 
statute. 

Ill 

Within a few years after the revision of the charter which became effective 
in 1900. the modern city charter wave began to sweep the country. Commission 
government was commending itself to an increasing number of the cities of 
the country, albeit attended with much luxuriance of the initiative and the 
referendvuii, and much utter nonsense of the recall. A little later there were 
still newer features, such as the City Manager or Mayor ^Manager plan of con- 
ducting the business of a city. They made New Haven's recently adopted 
charter, improvement though it was, appear out of date to some of the citizens. 

Yet suggestions that there ought to be a further and really radical change 
appeared not to waken a great amount of enthusiasm. As early as 1910 Judge 
A. MeClellan Mathewson made some tentative experiments with a chai-ter of his 
own designing, but did not secure encouraging results. But the demand per- 
sisted, from some quarters, that New Haven make another attempt at charter 
improvement. It became so positive in 1915 that JIayor Rice appointed a Com- 
mittee of Fifty to see about charter revision. That committee, after holding 
several meetings in the spring, and choosing a sub-committee on charter con- 
struction, made a report in June suggesting a moderate number of essential 
changes in the charter. 

The first of these amended the section of the charter providing for the election 
by ballot of city officers, by striking out the treasurer, clerk, collector and city 
sheriff, and providing that the.se persons should continue in office until their 
successors were chcsen, or they were duly removed for cause. It was provided 
that whenever there should be a vacancy in any of the offices the mayor should 
have power to appoint from a list provided by the Civil Service Board. It was 
further provided that a banking corporation or trust company might be ap- 
pointed to the office of treasurer. 

The second suggested change was the aliolition of the ward aldermen, and 
the election of eight aldermen at large, four each two year.s, with minority 
representation. Of this board the mayor should be a member ex-r)fficio, but 
might not vote except to dissolve a tie. 

The third proposed change was the removal of political reijuii-ements in 
ap]iointment to the Board of Finance — that is, the best men might be chosen 
without inquiring as to how they were accustomed to vote. 

The fourth recommendation abolished the Board of Police and Fire Com- 
missioners, making the chief in each ease the responsible head, the same to 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 109 

be appointed by the mayor from a list of names suggested by the Civil Service 
Board. In conueetion with this there was some detailed legislation concerning 
the powers of the heads of these departments and the government of the de- 
partments and their finances. 

Fifth, the report proposed a radically new method of nominating and electing 
mayor. Candidates might be nominated bj* petition, and the choice made by 
preferential voting. The plan was interesting, but as it did not then come 
into civic being, is not important in this consideration. 

These recommendations were duly submitted to the aldermen. That board 
passed the second, third, fourth and fifth without change. It saw fit to add 
to the continuing officers recommended in the first that of controller so that the 
treasurer, clerk, collector, city sheriff and controller holding ofSce on December 
31, 1917. should be continued in office. Then the aldermen proceeded to some 
charter revision of their own. First, they adopted an act concerning the pension- 
ing of members of the fire department. Second, they proposed to make the con- 
troller a general purchasing agent. And third, though it had been re-submitted 
by a committee of their own body, the aldermen refused, nine to eight, to submit 
to the people an amendment consolidating the offices of director of public works 
and city engineer. This amendment the mayor had been seeking to get through 
for several years, and it had once been refused by the voters. 

The mayor vetoed the list of recommendations in toto. It was not, as he 
sought to explain, because he failed to appreciate the work of the Committee of 
Fifty, or because he disapproved of all the amendments. The first failed of his 
approval because it did not provide for any passing by the Civil Service Board 
on the qualifications of the men then holding office, who must, by the provisions, 
be continued. In the second place, he held that the provision that the mayor 
must appoint the chiefs of the police and fire departments from a list ofl'ered by 
the Civil Service Board limited his power. He objected to the proposed manner 
of electing mayor because, on his information, it conflicted with state law. Hence 
he thought it best to refer the whole list of amendments back to the Committee 
of Fifty. 

It was not so referred, liowever. The Connnittee of Fifty, as such, pi'esently 
went out of existence. It consisted of a body of earnest men, but it was so large 
as to be unwieldy. As it seemed best not to abandon the effort to reconstruct 
the charter, the mayor in 1916 appointed a "Committee of Fifteen," practically 
all of whom had been members of the previous committee, to approach the task 
again. The members of this committee were: 

Leonard M. Daggett, who was made chairman : Eliot Watrous. who became 

secretary ; Clarence Blakeslee, George W. Crawford, Yandell Henderson, Everett 

G. Hill, Charles F. Julin, Harry C. Knight, Patrick F. O'Meara, William S. 

• Pardee, Frederick L. Perry, Matthew A. Reynolds, Isaac JI. Ullman, Anthony 

Verdi and Kenneth Wynne. 

This committee went to work with less of confidence, perhaps, that the time 
was ripe for radical charter revision than with the determination to find out 



110 A MODERN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN 

something of what the city really needed and the people of it earnestly wanted. 
As a preliminary, a public hearing, well advertised, was held, to which the 
people were urged to come with their views on charter amendment. The result 
was not, either in attendance or in views, highly encouraging or illuminating to 
the committee. So far as time would permit, all those present were given op- 
portunity to speak their minds fully. The number was not large, and the sug- 
gestions given were not especially constructive. 

Then the committee tried another tack. This was the invitation to its 
sessions, one at a time, of the experienced heads of the various city departments. 
The result was considerable first hand information to the committee, though not 
a unanimous opinion as to the directions which amendment should take, or that 
it should take any. But the majority opinion of the committee at first was that 
there should be certain material changes, embodying in part those reported by 
the previous Committee of Fifty. There had been, however, considerable inci- 
dental discussion of the recommendation of a comini.ssion charter, or of the 
City Manager or Mayor Manager plan. Several of the members were much in 
favor of this, and none was strongly opposed to it. though there was not full 
agreement as to the foi-m. The majority, however, were favorable to either the 
ilayor Manager or th<^ City Manager form. But it was the belief of those most 
conversant with the home rule act that it did not permit so radical a change in 
charter without appeal to Hartford, since it said : ' ' Excepting that the mayor 
* * * shall continue to be elected by popular vote." And again: "Ex- 
cepting that the powers and duties of the Mayor or Board of Aldermen shall 
not be curtailed under the procedure authorized by this act." 

In the end it was agreed, first that it was not advisable to recommend minor 
charter changes at this time ; second, that when the time for a radically changed 
charter was ripe, it was desirable that the question be submitted to the people, 
and that precedent to such action, it was necessary to so amend the Home Rule 
Act as to permit the adoption, if the people should see fit, of a Mayor Manager or 
City Manager charter. And with the appointment of a committee to secure 
such an amendment, the Committee of Fifteen closed its labors for 1916. The 
General Assembly of 1917 passed the amendment desired. 



CHAPTER XIV 
NEW HAVEN'S CHURCHES* 

THE ORIGINAL CHURCH AND ITS DESCENDANTS THE REPRESENTATIVES OF THE 

CHURCH OP ENGLAND AND THE GROWTH OF ITS FORM OF WORSHIP IN 
A NEW ENGLAND CITY 



"On this rook will I liuild," said John Davenport by his actions at tlie 
beginning of New Haven, "not my chureii, for the church is that rock, but my 
whole state." The first institution of New Haven was the church. It was nanu^d 
before the town was nanu^d. Davenport and his tired voyagers had no time, 
when first they left their boats at the head of creek navigation, to think about 
permanent shelter, and there was not much food about which to think. But 
this did not deter them from using that first Sabbath day for religious worship. 
That oak tree which .stood near where College Street now joins with George was 
as important in its way, and should have been as carefully preserved in historical 
depiction, as the Charter Oak at Hartford. It long ago succumbed to the wintry 
blasts, and the best reminder we have of it is its idealization in stained glass 
in the chancel window of Center Church. That window scene represents the. 
company of pilgrims grouped about Pastor Davenport under the oak on that 
first Sunday in the New Haven part of the New World. It is a depiction of the 
foundation that underlies all New Haven. 

In 280 years New Haven has changed, in outwai'd appearance, as much as has 
that place where the oak tree stood. A decade ago the observer who .stood 
at the southeast corner of the Green on a summer Sunday and watched the 
multitudes crowding the cars on their way, not to the churches, but to Savin 
Rock or Lighthouse Point, to the numberless cottages and resorts which line the 
east or the west shore, to woods or mountains in various directions, or who noted 
the endless stream of pleasure motor vehicles on their way anywhere but to the 
house of worship, might have said in his haste that the ilay of the supremacy of 
the church had passed. There were those who read in the polyglot constitution 
of a great part of New Haven's population the story of a churchless people, of 

* Tn this and the following cliapter thf I'hiirehes of New Haven have been treateil as 
nearly as possible in the chronologieal order of their foundation, without discrimination of 
creed, race or color. 

Ill 



112 A MODERN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN 

a eoutineutal Sunday. The iufereuce was that those who have come from all 
parts of the world will seek freedom from all sorts of religious as well as gov- 
ernmental repression, and will achieve a license as to the former which will for- 
ever end the day of the church's preeminence, even in the New Haven of John 
Davenport. 

It was not so. The man who today really observes New Haven knows that 
it is not so. To count the "unchurched," as it is superficially the habit to 
class them, is to get only the negative side of the case. The positive side is 
found in the number, the growth, the vigor, and more than aU the obvious fruits, 
of the churches of New Haven. These evidences never were as impressive as 
today, and careful examination and weighing of the work which the churches 
are doing and promoting materially strengthens them. The serious mind of this 
particular time is evident in New Haven, and those who note the many ways in 
which the community is rising to its duty and opportunity, and seek the causes 
of this public mood, find that, after all, New Haven is and has ever been founded 
where Davenport placed it, sciuarely on the church. 

There are eighty-eight churches in New Haven, counting all wliich follow in 
any degree the manner of New Haven's church traditions. There are others 
which call themselves churches, and we should hesitate to question their claim. 
In this day when we believe we see 

"Books in the running brooks, 

Sermons in stones and good in everything" 

thoughtful persons are less inclined to deny the virtues of any earnest, forward 
and upward looking body of believers or worshippers. The times are past when 
anybody doubted that there was room in New Haven for aU. Perhaps we 
ought to increase the number of religious communions in the city to about a 
hundred. 

Considerable space has already been given in these pages to the ancient and 
modern phases of that first church which Davenport founded. It has maintained 
its place in the life of New Haven, the center in reality as well as in name, of 
its religion as well as its civics. It has been served, since John Davenport and 
James Pierpont, by a long and distinguished line of men of power and vision. 
It is not the purpose, either with tliis or witli most of the other churches to be 
mentioned, to trace that line down tlie years. So we find in Center Cliurch pulpit, 
in the more than half a century following 1825, the clistingi;ished tlieologian, 
preacher and teacher Rev. Dr. Leonard Bacon. His pastorate of fifty-six years 
was one of the most notable of the past century, even in a land of long pastorates. 
But almost as notable in its way was that which followed it, of Dr. Newman 
Smyth. Of old New England stock and ]\Iaine origin, lie liad his college course 
at Bnwdoin, then his baptism of war in 1864 and 1865. As a veteran and a first 
lieutenant he took his divinity course, and after Rhode Island, Maine and Illinois 
pastorates — the last in the Presbyterian ministry — he came to the historic pulpit. 
His place in the community of New Haven and among the theologians of the 




CENTER elll'KeH ox THE (.KEEX, NEW HAVEN 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 113 

century has been all his own, and there is no need to compare it with liis pred- 
ecessors or his contemporaries. He needed not to make Center Church a place 
of fame, for it was already that, l)ut he made it a place beloved by all the people 
of New Haven, and by thousands of the men who were temporarily residents 
of the city. It was in his pastorate that the vesper services, at 4 o'clock ou 
Sunday afternoons, were established. They soon became characteristic of the 
church. There was something seemingly above earth in the experience of sitting 
for an hour under the influence of the atmosphere of worship, the words of the 
seer and the charm of the music, which had its lasting effect on multitudes in the 
passing years. Dr. Smyth made, in the quarter of a century while he actively 
served the church, an impression for uplift that was not at all confined to its 
members. It was a community service, and more. 

That was the word which the pastor passed on to his successor who came in 
1909, the Rev. Oscar Edward Maurer. He had a l)urning sense of the mission of 
this church to the whole community. He expanded in various ways the reach of 
Center Church to all New Haven. He is a man of deep consecration, high 
vision and the finest personal charm. His place iu New Haven outside the 
church has been, without the least weakening of loyalty to his own people, an 
enviable one. Almost a decade of his service in every good work has left his 
mark on New Haven as a man of power and a brother of devotion, an impression 
not in the least diminished by his throwing of himself into war service when the 
opportunity came. He was for two years a member of the Second Regiment of 
the Wisconsin National Guard, and in 1910 was made chaplain of the Second 
Company, Governor's Foot Guard at New Haven. He could not resist the urge 
of the great war. In 1917 he entered the service of the Young Men's Christian 
Association at Camp Meade, and the following year he went in the same service 
to France. 

The one church of John Davenport has grown, in the course of 280 years, 
to fifteen churches of its faith and order, so that New Haven is regarded &s one 
of the centers of Congregationalism. The oldest next to Center, having its place 
of worship on the Green, is the United, or, as it was known in former years, the 
North Church, with reference to its location. Still further back than that, it 
was the Fair Haven Church, so named for reasons which require a little reference 
to the earlier history. 

For a little more than a century the church of Davenport had reigned alone. 
That a second church was formed in 1742 is less surprising than that the .350 
persons who landed with Davenport had grown to nearly 5,000 without forming 
another church. That was when the White Haven Church was founded. It 
seems to have gathered some independfent spirits, so independent that they could 
not wholly agree, for in 1769 there was a secession, and the Fair Haven Church 
was formed. This had nothing to do with the district of the town since known 
as Fair Haven, but referred to a name by which some were at one time disposed 
to call New -Haven. But the divided elements were reunited in 1796. and the 
beginning of the United Church was made. It was for some time thereafter, 

Vnl. I S 



114 A MODERN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN 

however, known as the Fair Haven Society. For some decades previous to 1815 
the building used was what was known as the "Blue Meeting House.'' A sort 
of pale blue seems at that time to have been a favorite color for painting some . 
buildings. The union wliieh made this the United Church, superseding the 
common appellation North Church, was formed by the addition of the Third 
Church in 1884. The present edifice, one of the finest types of the New England 
church architecture of that period, was completed in 1815. 

Before that time some notable men served the White Haven and Fair Haven 
congregations, the most famous of them being the Rev. Jonathan Edwards the 
younger, who was pastor in the days of the Revolutionary War. The Rev. Sam- 
uel IMerwin was pastor in 1812, and was the moving spirit in the starting of the 
building which for over a century has stood at the north side of the Green. A 
break of a little more than half a century from his pastorate brings us to the 
Rev. Dr. Theodore Thornton Munger, for fifteen years preacher and teacher of 
this church and through it of a country-wide audience, one of the giants of the 
church in the closing years of the nineteenth century. He was a plain man of 
simple humanity, something of a Puritan, it may lie, but a supernally clear 
thinker and practical theologian. In the community of New Haven his |>o\ver 
was beyond computation. He was one of the seers of our time, and even nt)w 
it is impossible, for lack of adequate perspective, to appreciate the greatness of 
the work he did. 

There was a brief pastorate following, the intensity of whose personality, and 
the tragedy of whose ending, took deep hold on the hearts of the people of the 
church and of New Haven. Rev. Artemas Jean Haynes came, as so many of 
the recently called pastors of New Haven have done, from service in the West, 
though he was in New England when his call reached liim. For seven, years he 
grew into the hearts of the people of New Haven through his church and com- 
muity work. His great .soul was too broth'erly, too sensitive to human need, to 
resist any appeal for the wonderful help he could give by his earnest counsel, 
his helpful presence or his eloquent words. He bore up well under the burden.s 
he carried, however, only to mysteriously meet his death by drowning in a Cape 
Cod lake in the summer of 1908. 

Since 1909 the church has been served by the Rev. Robert C. Denison, who 
came from Janesville, Wis. He has worthily followed the path of service, both 
of the church and community, trod by his predecessors. Many are the calls on 
the time and effort of the pastor of the Ignited Church, sometimes seemingly 
more than a less than superman can meet, but Mr. Denison spares not himself. 
A man of fine sympathies, of clear vision, of devoted purpose, he is making a 
place in the heart of a city of great opportunities which will give him something 
more enduring than fame. 

The third constituent member of the United Church, the Third Congrega- 
tional, was the next of the churches of this denomination to be formed in New 
Haven. In 1815 the three churches on the Green (Trinity making the third) 
were the only churches in New Haven. But in the ten years following there was 




UNITED CHURai. NEW HAVEX. ORGANIZED IN 1742 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 115 

a considerable growth of population at the eastern side of the city. Wooster 
Square had just been laid out, and it seemed to the Congregationalists that there 
was need for a rhureh in that section. So the Third churcli was orgaiiized, and 
until it could get on its feet, met in the Orange Street lecture room of Center 
Church. This was in 1826, and soon after a building was erected at the corner 
of Chapel and Union streets. The Rev. X. W. Taylor, D. D., a professor in the 
Yale Divinity School, supplied as pastor for the first few years, but the Rev. 
Dr. Elisha Lord Cleaveland was the first pastor, from 1833 to 1866. Somehow 
the vicinity of Wooster Square did not at that time prove a favorable spot for 
Congregationalism, for the congregation abandoned its building to the stock- 
holders (along with the debt) and came up to worship in Saunders" Hall at the 
corner of Chapel and Orange streets about 1839. Then they built again, on 
Court Street, the building which about 1856 we find occupied by the Jewish 
Congregation Mishkan Israel. For the church seems to have prospered better 
for a time in its uptown location, and thought it must have a better site. It 
secured the money to build again in 1845 the edifice on Church Street, betv^-een 
Chapel and Court, which, abandoned by the Third Church in 1884, was after- 
ward for some years used as a public library, and was, after lieing given up by 
that institution, torn down to make room for the Second National Bank 
Building. 

But there were too many churches of the same denomination around the im- 
mediate center of New Haven, and th<> residence area was moving away from 
the Green. So the Thiril Church did not find ade(|uate support in its newest 
location, and after some decades of unsncressful struggle gave it up. There was 
room for those of its members who still wished a central place of worship in the 
North Church, and the union was made in 1884. Rev. Stephen 1>. Dcnnen, D. 
D., was its last pastor, from 1875 to 1884. 

There was a minority in the Third church, when its comparatixely m-w build- 
ing at Chapel and Union streets was abandoned, who still held to the lielief that 
the city needed a church in the Wooster Square district. After a year or two 
they managed to get control of the building, and renamed it the Chapel Street 
Church. This was the beginning of the Church of the Redeemer, which grew 
to be one of New Haven's strongest Congregational churches, but not in the 
Woostei- Square section. It was aliout 1869 when, after having been served for 
brief terms by a number of pastors, this church sought what was then a com- 
paratively new portion of the city, the corner of Orange and Wall streets. There 
it completed a new building, from the size and excellence of which one must 
.iudge the church to have had considerable financial strength at the time. The 
year after the new church was completed the Rev. John E. Todd came to be its 
pastor, and for twenty years, from 1870 to 1890, with a short break when failing 
health forced his temporary retirement, he took a leading place among thp pas- 
tors of New Haven, and gave his church a like standing in the city. 

In 1890, when Dr. Todd finally resigned the pastorate, the i-liui'di made 
another popular and progressive move by calling the Rev. Watson Lyman Rhil- 



116 A ilODERN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN 

lips, who was destined for the next (iiiartcr of a century to be one of the powers 
in the Congregational pulpits of New Haven. Masterly as a preacher, earnest 
and aggressive as a worker, and an energetic participant in every form of gen- 
eral eomnnmity activity. Dr. Phillips won and held a high place in the esteem 
of all the people of the city. He resigned from the pa.storate at the end of 1915. 

This church also, in the latter years of Dr. Phillips's pastorate, had felt the 
expansion urge. The church population was expanding; the churches had i-e- 
mained centralized. The Church of the Redeemer, in a distinctly central loca- 
tion, felt need for the support of those who had moved nearer the edges of the 
city. So its members resolved to begin their next pastorate in a new field. Pur- 
chasing a property at the corner of Whitney Avenue and Cold Spring Street, 
they made plans for the immediate l)uilding of a temporary parish house in 
which to worship until they could complete a new edifice, and called to their 
pulpit the Rev. Roy M. Houghton, who took up the work in 1916. He ener- 
getically attacked the task of reconstruction, and by the end of 1917 he had seen 
the $90,000 for the building of the parish house part of the new church equip- 
ment practically all pledged. Then he felt the urge of the great strife across 
the seas, and applied for a release from his duties to take effect April 1, 1918, 
so that he might join the growing group of New Haven pastors who were serving 
the army in France. The church reluctantly, though patriotically, granted the 
release. 

The building which the Church of the Redeemer occupied for nearly fifty 
years, at the corner of Orange and Wall streets, was in 1916 sold to the Trinity 
German Lutheran Church whose place of worship was formerly on lower George 
Street. 

There were from early times a few colored people of the Congregational 
faith in New Haven. For a long time these were included in the membership 
of the United Church, but about 1829, their number having grown to a respecta- 
ble strength, they chose to have a church of their own. This was at first the 
Temple Street Church, and had its building, which some time since disappeared, 
on Temple Street south of the Green. There the Rev. Simeon E. Joeelyn served 
the people from 1829 to 1836, and was followed by the Rev. Amos G. Beeman. 
The Rev. Andrew P. :Miller was pastor from 1885 to 1896. In 1902 the Rev. 
Edward F. Coin came to the pastorate, and has remained until now, having won 
by Ids high spirit of devotion, his earnest and able woi'k and liis admirable char- 
acter a high place, not only in the hearts of his people, but of all who know him 
in New Haven. It ceased some time ago, however, to be the Temple Street 
Church. The center of the colored population of the city some years since 
became Dixwell Avenue and its vicinity, and in 1886 this congi'egation built on 
the lower part of Dixwell Avenue, and became the Dixwell Avenue Congrega- 
tional Church. 

Tlie Fair Haven Chun-h that was named after the Village of Fair Haven, 
now the Grand Avenue Congregational Church, was founded in 1830, the out- 
growth of the natural demand of the j^eople of that part of the town for their 



AND EASTEKN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 117 

own place of religious worship. It erected its own building, and soon grew to 
a strong church. Its present dignitied aud ample edifice, dating from 1854, 
sufficiently testifies that as early as that it was able to command considerable 
resources. Its first pastor was the Rev. John Mitchell, who remained from 1830 
to 1836. Rev. B. L. Swan served the church for the next nine years. Then suc- 
ceeded the notable pastorate of the Rev. Burdett Hart, whose eminence and abil- 
ity gave the church a first rank among the bodies of its order in New Haven. 
He was pastor from 1846 to 1890, and was succeeded by the Rev. James Lee 
Jlitchell, just out of Harvard, young aud decidedly original in his ways. His 
was a vigorous and popular pastorate, and especially won the young people. It 
closed in 1901. The Rev. Isaiah W. Sneath came to the church in 1904, and for 
eight years was the beloved and successful leader of this growing congregation. 
He was succeeded in 1912 by the Rev. WiUiani C. Prentiss, a young man of 
devotion and power, who has ably carried on the growing woi'k in this important 
portion of the town. 

The year 1831 dates the organization of a church whieli, though small in its 
beginnings aud for .some years inconspicuous in the fellowship, was destined to 
have an important part in the later religious development of the city. There 
are none living now who remember the ilission Church, as it was calletl. which 
started with twelve meniljcrs. who met in the Orange Street lecture room of 
Ceuter Cluirch. The develo])nient of this congregation was, however, rapid. 
The following year it had changed its uame to the "Free Church," not, it seems, 
in any spirit of rebellion against the established churches. By 1833 the member- 
ship had increased to fifty-two, aud having outgi'owu the lecture room, it had 
moved to Exchange Hall, at the corner of Church aud Chapel streets, for wor- 
ship. There the people remained for three years, until they could complete 
their fii-st house of worship, on Church Street, near George. When they went 
to that in 1836, they changed their name to the Church Street Church. 

That building the congi-egatiou used for twelve years, but it seems not to 
have wholly sufficed. For the congregation steadily grew, so that a new aud 
larger edifice on College Street was planned. This was the College Street 
Church, and this name the organization took when it moved there in 1848. For 
half a century the church remained in that building, prospering and doing a 
valuable work in the upbuilding of New Haven. There had been a varied suc- 
cession of pastors. There were several "acting pastors" from 1831 to 1837, 
hut the fii-st "settled pa.stor, " who came that year, was the Rev. Henn- G. Lud- 
low. He remained until 1842. The Rev. Edward Strong, D. D., in his time one 
of the influential pastors of the city, was settled over the church from 1842 to 
1862. The Rev. Orpheus T. Lauphear, who succeeded him, remained only from 
1864 to 1867. and for two years following the church was without a settled pas- 
tor. The Rev. James W. Hubbell, who was installed in 1869, remained until 
1876. He was succeeded by the Rev. Henry S. Kelsey, who was an "acting 
pastor" for the eight years. 

In 1884, with the iiistiillatioii of the Rev. William W. :\rcLane, the church 



118 A MODERN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN 

entered on its modem period. He was to remain with it for over a quarter of a 
century, and in his time, and largely due to his progressive influence, impor- 
tant changes were to come to the church. It was soon after he came that the 
centrifugal population movement in New Haven really began. There were more 
churches within a quarter of a mile of the Green than there had ever been ; there 
began to be fewer people. Dr. McLane was not long in seeing the point. He 
foresaw an inevitable change in the location of the church. The population of 
the character which this church served was growing westward. The progressive 
church must go in that direction. The short of it was that when, in 1898, Yale 
University made the College Street Church a handsome offer for its building. 
Doctor McLano urged its acceptance, and the majority of his congregation 
agreed with him. That building, used by Yale for the next twenty years as Col- 
lege Street Hall, was disposed of by the University when its new building for 
the School of ^lusic, at the corner of College and ^Yall streets, was completed 
in 1917. 

Meanwhile, the College Street Church had purchased a site at the corner of 
Chapel Street and Sherman Avenue, and proceeded to build, on the rear of it, 
a parish house. There it worshipped until the church, tlie corner stone of which 
was laid on the 1st day of January, 1901, was completed. AYith this completion, 
or before, the church changed its name to Plymouth Church, and its growth in 
the new location and new building was rapid. Doctor ^IcLane resigned the pas- 
torate at the end of 1910, and the Rev. Orville A. Petty was called in the fal- 
lowing year. He proved an attractive and progi'essive pastor, and the church 
continued to grow rapidly. In 191.5, when the Connecticut National Guard was 
called to the itexiean border, he was appointed chaplain of the Second Regi- 
ment. Returning after four months' leave of absence from his pulpit, he re- 
mained with the church until the summer of 1916, when he was made chaplain 
of the 102d Regular Regiment which was created out of the First and Second 
regiments of Connecticut Infantry. He is now with the regiment, somewhere 
in France. His congregation parted from him with deep regret, — for he had 
become greatly beloved in his six years of service, — but in a patriotic spirit of 
sacrifice. He was given indefinite leave of absence, and his salai-y partially con- 
tinued. The Rev. James S. "Williamson became acting pastor. 

There was no Congregational Church in Westville until 1832, though some 
time before this there must have been a strong settlement of church-going people 
on that side of the West River. Up to then, however, they had followed the rural 
custom of "driving in" to church, probably to the Green. The Rev. Joseph E. 
Bray was the first pastor, from 1832 to 1834. After him the pulpit was "sup- 
plied" for the next eight years. From 1842 to 1846 Rev. Judson A. Root served 
the church, and then there were three years of supplies. In 1849 the Rev. 
Samuel H. Elliott came to the church, and was its pastor until 1855, when 
he Avas succeeded by the Rev. James L. Willard, who made this church notable 
for one of the long pastorates of New Haven. He was a native of Madison, 
a man of tliorough learning, a powerful preacher and a beloved pastor. He made 




BENEDICT ME.MOIUAL I'HESHVTEKIAX (HI KIH. XKW HAVEN 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 119 

this eluirch iu "Westville oue of the first-rauk churches of New Haven. Ad- 
vanced years caused his retirement iu 1893, after a pastorate of forty-eight 
years. The pulpit was filled in the following decade by Rev. 0. R. Howe and 
Rev. Henry Davies. Then, in 1903, came the Rev. Frederick L. Davis, who 
remained until 1908. The present pastor, the Rev. Clair F. Luther, came to 
the fhureh the same year, and has ably maintained and advanced its traditions 
and service. In a large way he has been a part of New Haven's civic 
as well as religious life, and has always been found willing to aid in every 
community effort. To his own people he has been a faithful pastor, whose fine 
ideals have nobly led them on. 

In 1838 began the history of the first Congregational Church of New Haven 
to follow the star of westward empire. For at that time. Park Street was on 
the frontier, and there was organized, with forty-nine members, the Park Street 
Church. But moving with the tide of residence, it was found another block 
out four years later, now with 150 members, and called the "Howe Street 
Church." There it erected its first edifice, at the corner of Howe Street and 
what was then Martin Street, now Edgewood Avenue, and there it remained for 
thirty years. Its house of worship conformed to the prevailing New England 
type of that time, and though less pretentious than the "ancient" churches on 
the Green, was considered notable for what must, because of its remote western 
location, have been considered a country church. 

But New Haven's growth was westward, and this progressive church was 
bound to be on the ci'est of the wave. Sometime before 1872 the church had 
increased to a then notable size, having in excess of 200 members. They 
realized that they must have a larger building, and determined that it was 
d.esirable to place it still farther westward. So the present edifice was built 
at the corner of Chapel and D wight streets, and the church was renamed the 
Dwight Place Church. There it has rested from its westward progress, and 
been content to serve and grow in an important and sterling residence part of the 
city, while the city has grown on so that another Congregational church finds a 
busy mission beyond it. The church is now the largest Congregational body in 
New Haven, and one of the largest in Connecticut, having close to 1,000 members. 

The first pastor of the church, in the old Park Street days, was Rev. Leicester 
A. Sawyer. He remained in the pulpit, however, only from 1838 to 1840. 
Then the Rev. Abram C. Baldwin was pastor until 1845. Mr. Sawyer returned 
for nearly two years after that, but only as a supply. From 1847 till 1852, 
or until nearly the middle of the Howe Street period, the pastor was Rev. 
William De Loss Love. In 1861 the Rev. John S. C. Abbott, since widely kno-«Ti as 
a historian, came to the pulpit, and i-emained until 1866. It will be noticed that 
at a later time he was pastor for a few years of the Second Church of Fair 
Haven. After a brief interval of supply Rev. George B. Neweomb came to the 
church, but was only acting pastor for the next ten years. He was succeeded 
by Rev. Thomas R. Bacon, whose pastorate extended from 1880 to 1884. 

Three notable men have served the church in the modern period, perhaps 



120 A MODERN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN 

its jjeriod of greatest progress and influence. Rev. Justin E. Twitchell, D. D., 
came to the church in 1885, and for thirteen years ministered to its growing 
congregation, beloved by his church and honored throughout the city. He was 
succeeded in 1899 by the Rev. William W. Leete, D. D., an earnest pastor, 
an active and efficient organizer and a strong preacher. He retired from the 
pastorate in 1914 to became field secretary of the Congregational Church Build- 
ing Society, and shortly afterward was succeeded by the Rev. Harry R. Miles, 
who has ably continued the high service of this important church, and entered 
into the esteem of the whole community of New Haven. He also has gone to 
Y. M. C. A. war service. 

The second church of Fair Haven, founded when that section beyond the 
river was East Haven territory, had its start in 1852. While yet it was an 
infant, an untoward rivalry arose with a new church a little nearer the city. 
This was the so-called Third ChurcJi of Fair Haven, of which Rev. William 
B. Lee was pastor. It lasted only a year, however, and its members went 
back to the second church. The fir.st regular pastor of the second church 
was the Rev. Nathaniel J. Burton, who was with it from 1853 to 1857. There 
then followed a series of notable men : Rev. Gurdon W. No.yes, from 1861 
to 1869; Rev. John S. C. Abbott, widely known as a writer, from 1870 to 1875; 
Rev. Richard B. Thurston, in 1875 and 1876; Rev. Horace B. Hovey, 1876 to 
1883; Rev. Erastus Blakeslee, 1884 to 1887; Rev. D. Melancthon James, 1887 
to 1903. He was followed by Rev. Robert E. Brown, who in 1910 was called 
to the large Second Congregational Church of Waterbury. The Rev. Harris 
E. Starr came down from Mount Carmel to succeed him, and was in the 
midst of a most successful pastorate when this country entered the war. The 
great need for spiritual ministry on the battle front seized him, and he went 
out as a chaplain, taking from New Haven one of its most respected and useful 
pastors. Early in the new century the name of this church was changed to 
the Pilgrim Church. 

Among the churches which old Center has mothered is Davenport. That 
was started as a chapel on Wallace Street late in the 'fifties. A few years later 
it had a chapel on Franklin Street. Its next move was to Greene Street in 
1864. Ten years later its congregation was able to build the Davenport church, 
and a period of great prosperity followed. Its pastor for a few years before 
that had been Rev. John W. Partridge, but soon after the erection of the new 
church came Rev. Isaac C. Meserve, and for twenty-four years he had one of 
the livest and most progressive churches in New Haven. It was a church 
popular in the best sense, a church of workers, earnest and true. Following 
Doctor Meserve was the eight years' pastorate of the Rev. George Foster 
Prentiss, in his time one of the most notable of the younger ministers of the 
city. He was succeeded by the Rev. Jason Noble Pierce, just out of the semi- 
nary, who remained from 1906 to 1908. By that time the church had come 
seriously to feel the removal from its district of a great many of the people 
who had formerly supported it. The Rev. Ernest L. Wismer .succeeded 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 121 

Mr. Pierce in 1908, hut in the following year the church gave up the struggle, 
and its people voted to unite with Center. Center Church did not give it up, 
however. It has been continued as an Italian Congregational body. The Rev. 
Francesco Pesaturo was its pastor for several years, and did a noble work there. 
When he went to New Britain, he was succeeded by the Rev. Philip M. Rose, who 
has been equally successful. 

Howard Avenue Church was organized in 1865. A few years previous to 
that there had been what is now recalled by older residents as the old South 
Church on Columbus Aveniie. In Civil War times, or just before, this church 
split on the familiar rock of the slavery qiiestion, and a part of the members 
were waiting for such an opportunity as the Howard Avenue Church presented. 
The old South Church buildiiig, by the way, subseijuently went to a Catholic 
congregation just being founded in that district, and is now the Church of the 
Saci'ed Heart. The first pa.stor of the Howard Avenue Church was the Rev. 
Orlando H. White. After a succession of brief pastorates, we find Rev. William 
J. Mutch there from 1887 to 1907, who was succeeded by the Rev. J. Edward 
Newton from 1908 to 1912. Both were able men and devoted pastors. TTnder 
the former the church saw progress and prosperity. The latter led it when 
it was facing the familiar problem of what to do when all the people move to 
another part of the city. Rev. Albert L. Scales came in 1912 and left in 1917. 
The present pastor is Rev. Peter Goertz. 

Humphrey Street Church, in its beginnings of 1871, was another mission 
of Center Church. As far back as that Humphrey Street was, churchwise, on 
the frontier. Its first pastors were Rev. R. G. S. McNeille, 1871-1872; Rev. 
R. P. Hibbard, 1876-1879; Rev. John A. Hainia, from 1879 till his death in 
1880; Rev. Stephen H. Bray, 1883 to 1887. Rev. Frank R. Luckey came to it in 
1887. He was young and the church was young; so were its people, in large 
part. It was an inspiring combination. In those days the motto of "all the 
church in the Sunday school, all the Sunday school in the church and everybody 
in both" was adopted and made good. In a later period, this church also 
suffered from the condensation of churches in its locality, and the removal else- 
where of many of its people. But the faithful pastor held his ground. He still 
serves the church, and is now the dean of the Congregational pastors of New 
Haven, a position-in which they cheerfully hail him as a leader. 

The Taylor Congregational Church, at the corner of Shelton Avenue and 
Division Street, was established about 1873 as a mission of Center Church, and 
has been, in recent years, much under the wing of the mother church. It has 
had some prominent and faithful pastors, but they have not always been sup- 
ported bj- such numbers as to encourage a minister. The first was the Rev. 
Henry L. Hutehins, from 1873 to 1880. He was followed by the Rev. Newton 
I. Jones, who remained for three years. The pastor from 1883 to 1885 was 
Rev. Daniel W. Clark, and Rev. John Allender served the church for the years 
succeeding 1885. The chureli has been without a settled pastor for the past 
two vears. 



122 A MODERN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN 

Congregationalism founded in other lands has been notably reflected in 
New Haven. Aside from the Italian Congregational Church which Davenport 
has become, there is the Swedish Emanuel Church on Wooster Place, between 
Chapel and Greene streets, established less than two decades, and the Danish- 
Norwegian Evangelical, of about the same age, located at 226 Cedar Street. 
The pastor of the former is Rev. C. H. B. Petterson, and of the latter Rev. Eiel 
S. Eielsen. A branch of the Italian Church is now conducted at 59 Oak Street. 

There was a Ferry Street Congregational Church, founded in 1887 on upper* 
Ferry Street, near the point where the railroad crosses. At one time there 
was sufficient congregation so that a fair sized building was erected. The pulpit 
was mostly supplied from the Yale divinity school. But it had a precarious 
existence, and gave up tlie ghost about 1900. Since then the building has 
disappeared. 

II 

It does not profit now to recall the spirit of opposition to the estal)lished 
church of England in which the first churches of New Haven were founded, 
except as a background. It was freedom to wor.ship God as they pleased which 
the early fathers sought, but when they had obtained it, they were not minded 
to extend it to others, least of all to their ancient eneinies of that church whose 
bishop of Lond<in vowed to inbil)it .John Davenport, even in his refuge across the 
sea. There was a long and bitter fight before the Church of England was given 
a foothold in New Haven, and it was 114 years before a truce was declared. 
But the short of the story is that Trinity Parish, organized in 1752, did 
build a house of worship on the east side of Church Street, near Chapel, thereb.y 
giving Church Street its name. There the people of Trinity worshipped for 
sixty-two years. Sixty-two years can make marvels, but the spirit of brotherhood 
accomplished, even in that time, a wonderful work to have so changed the hearts 
of the descendants of Davenport's stern parishioners, and the proprietors of the 
Green, that they were ready to permit the erection on the spot dedicated to 
everlasting liberty, a church of their former religious foe. That building, 
the present dignified and handsome home of the church, was completed in 1815. 
Tluis — and the coincidence is worth noticing — the three noble church buildings 
which stand on the Green today, the only ones of many which have survived, 
the only buildings which seem likely to stand on the Green for some time to 
come, were completed within two years of 1815. 

This first Church of England has been served, in its 166 years of histoi-y, by 
rectors few in number but mighty in influence. Rev. Harvey Crosswell, the 
first, continued until 1859. The Rev. Edwin Ilarwood came to the ehui'ch in 
that year, and for almost forty years, or until his health failed in 1895, was 
its rector, occupying a commanding place in the city's civic as well as religious 
affairs, highly honored of all. Rev. Charles 0. Scoville came into his place 
then, and his more than two decades of leadership of this church and people 
have been notable ones. 




TKIXITY PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH. NE\Y HAVEN 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 123 

Proceeding in chronological order, the next Episcopal church after Trinity 
was St. James' Church in Westville. It came into existence after the central 
church liad served the adherents of this form of religious worship for only 
eighteen years less than a century. Then, in 1835, Westville, feeling remote 
and independent, required a church, and St. James was the result. Its first 
rector was Rev. Stephen Jewett, who was with the church from 1835 to 1847, 
being succeeded by the Rev. Henry Townsend. In the next forty years there 
was a succession of brief rectorates, as many as twenty, we are told. In 1888 
Rev. Charles 0. Scoville, who later became rector of Trinity on the Green, was 
rector, and remained for seven years. The following year Rev. J. Frederick 
Sexton come from Cheshire to this church, and has since been its rector, with 
a remarkable administration of over two decades to his credit. In that time the 
church has been a steady, spiritual power in Westville, and Mr. Sexton a per- 
suasive force for good in the counnuuity. The church has outgrown its building 
long since, and for several years past it has been the effort of Mr. Sexton to 
secure means for making for it a new and modern home and center of influence. 
A substantial fund has been created for this purpose, but pressing events delay 
the consummation. 

Another St. James, at the opposite side of the town, follows in the order. 
It is tlie Church of England which guards, .jointly with what is now Pilgrim 
Churcli. the gateway to Fair Haven Heights. Of course that was East Haven 
gi'ound in 1843, when this church was founded. The church had several rectors 
for brief periods in its first two years, but then it was distinguished by one of the 
long rectorates, even of New England. Rev. William E. Vibbert came to the 
church in 1845. He remained its rector for forty-six years, and became a power 
among the clergj-men of his order in the vicinity. He was followed in 1891 by 
the Rev. Charles H. Doupe, who remained for six years. Then came the Rev. 
A. P. Chapman and A. D. Miller for brief rectorates. The present rector is 
Rev. John C. France. 

There may have been no inclination to draw the color line, but rather early 
in the history of the Episcopal Church in New Haven its members of dark 
skin thought it well to have their own church. So it was that St. Luke's was 
founded as early as 1844. It early erected a building on lower Whalley Avenue, 
and thei'e it has had a worthy record ever since, and some men of high dis- 
tinction have l^een among its rectors. The first was the Rev. Worthington 
Stokes, who was with the church for several years in its early time. Among 
the others have been the Rev. Theodore Hawley, who was later bishop of 
Hayti, and E. L. Henderson, who was rector in 1901 and the seven years fol- 
lowing. For the past decade the rector has been Rev. Harry 0. Bowles. 

It is natural to look for a Church of England in the Wooster Square district 
in the middle of the last century, and there one finds, founded in 1851, 
St. Paul 's. There it has been continuously for nearly three-quarters of a century, 
doing a steady, constructive work, which is more effective today than ever before 
in its history, despite the materially changed character of its neighborhood. 



124 A MODERN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN 

lu other respects it has beeu a remarkable church. Tliere are few churches in 
Connecticut or New England which in sixty-seven years have had two men called 
from their rectorates to bishop's chairs, but such is St. Paul's record. 

Rev. Samuel Cooke was the first rector, continuing until nearly 1860. Rev. 
Edward L. Drown ministered to the church from 1860 to 1868. Rev. Francis 
Lobdell was the rector from 1869 to 1879. Then followed the distinguished 
rectorate of Rev. Edwin S. Lines, continuing from 1879 until, in 1903, he was 
elected bishop of Newark. The following year Rev. J. DeWolfe Perry, Jr., 
came to the rectorate, and had successfully led the church for seven years when 
he was elected bishop of Rhode Island. In 1911 Rev. George L. Paine became 
rector, and under him the church has especially adapted itself to its problem 
of holding its strength of membership, and at the same time serving the people, 
.seemingly alien to its fellowship, who live round about it. To his wise and 
unselfish leadership the older members have been loyal, finding joy and satis- 
faction in the service of the people in this part of the city. St. Paul 's settlement 
w-ork. its general exemplification of how a church can find its greatest strength 
in expressional activity, have been shown elsewhere. 

The next Episcopal church to be established. St. Thomas, in 1848, has had in 
respect to rectorate a remarkable record. Its seventy years of history have 
been covered by the terms of two rectors, of the same name and family. Rev. Eben 
Edwards Beai-dsley came to this church when it was establi-shed. He found it using 
a rented room, small in membership and in need of good leadership. He made 
St. Thomas one of the strong members of the Episcopal fellowship in his forty- 
four years of service. Its present dignified stone building on Elm Street was 
erected in 1854 and 1855, and in it the church grew and served the city for 
the years of his leadership. In 1890 the Rev. William Agur Beardsley, nephew 
of the rector, came to be his assistant. Two years later, on his uncle's death 
in 1892, he became rector, and has since conducted the church's important 
work. Uncle and nephew have been prominent in the church of state and 
country, men of widely recognized abilit,v in many ways. 

In 1851 was formed St. John's Episcopal Church, which built a few years 
later, at the corner of State and Elm streets, what the irreverent used to call 
the "wheelbarrow church," because of its modest size and unaspiring archi- 
tecture. In the first thirty years of its time it was served by Rev. John T. 
Huntington, its first rector, by Rev. Benjamin W. Stone and by Rev. Richard 
Whittingham, who was rector in 1874. In 1883 Rev. Stewart Means came to 
this rectorate, and has led the church ever since, in what has been its period 
of greatest usefulness and progress. At the beginning of the century, under his 
leadership, the church changed its location to a site on Orange Street at the 
corner of Humphrey, where it erected one of the most seemly and attractive 
church buildings in the city, and has continued a noble work. Dr. Means, though 
now in his thirty -sixth year of service with this chxirch, a period which has made 
liiiti the dean of all the Protestant clergy of New Haven, continues his useful 
work and leadership with undiminislied vigor. 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 125 

That same year the Cliurcli of tlie Ascension was estal>lishcd as a mission 
ehapel of St. Panl's, in what was the southern edge of the city. It later Iniilt 
at Davenport Avenue and Ward Street. It has bravely striven to uphold the 
faith and worship of its order in a locality which has lost most of its English 
population. It has lieen led by a long list of faithful men, many of its pastorates 
being brief ones. Rev. Philip Mariett was rector from 1898 to 1902, and the 
present rector is Rev. Harold Johns. 

New Haven's most distinguished high chun-h, an able member of its galaxy 
of fine Episcopal churches, is Christ Church on Broadway. It dates back to 
1856, when it was founded with Rev. Joseph Brewst<»r, father of the present 
bishop of the Connecticut diocese, as its rector. He gave the church an excellent 
start and high standing through a service of twenty-si.x years. Retiring in 1882, 
he was succeeded by Rev. George Brinley Morgan, who remained with the church 
until his unfortunate death by accident in 1908. Rev. Frederick Merwin 
Burgess followed him, and ably carried on the work for four years, when he 
succumbed to the tremendous liurden of the church's work, and terminated 
wliat promised to be a most brilliantly useful career. The present rector is 
Rev. William Osborn Baker. 

(iraee Church on Blatehley Avenue in Fair Haven was established in 1871, 
and has had a suee^ession of rather brief pastorates. Among the men who have 
led it are Rev. John W. Leek, Rev. Peter A. Jay, Rev. John H. Fitzgerald, 
Rev. Herbert N. Denslow, Rev. Elihu T. Sanford, Rev. F. R. Sanford, and Rev. 
George A. Alcott^ the present rector, who has ably served the church siuce 1906. 

Forbes Chapel of the Epiphany, on Forbes Avenue, is a mission of St. Paul's. 
It is now ministered to by Rev. Robert Bell. St. Andrew's Chapel at Shelton Ave- 
nue and Ivy Street was a mission of Trinity, but now it has an independent 
organization, and is ministered to by Rev. W. E. Morgan. All Saint's Chapel 
at Howard Avenue and Lamberton Street, under the direction of Trinity 
Church, has Rev. William P. Williams in charge. 



CHAPTER XV 
NEW HAVEN'S CHURCHES (Concliuled) 

THE EAELV AND LATER GROWTH (JF THE METHODIST CHURCHES THE BAPTIST 

CHURCHES THE GREAT RECORD OP THE CHURCH OP ROME THE JEWISH CON- 
GREGATIONS AND THEIR LEADERS — THE VALUABLE GROUP OP YOUNGER CHURCHES 



If the original plnireliman of the Davenport school looked askanee at the 
arrival of the Church of England, they did more than that when the ilethodi.sts 
appeared on the scene. Their origin was suspected, their ways of worship were 
to them objectionable. Moreover, in 1789, when their first scattering representa- 
tives appeared, tliey were so few in number as to fail to .secure respect. But 
tolerance had entered New Haven in the century and a half of its existence, 
and the MethodLsts, who previous to that time had depended on occasional offices 
from circuit preachers, were suffered in 179.5 to organize their first church. 
But when they sought a central place for a building, they met with difficulties. " 
So after worshipping liere and there for the first two years, they were content 
with the purchase of the building on Gregson Street previously used by the then 
extinct Sandemanian Church. Here, the record tells, they were more or less 
disturbed, at the first, by certain of the rowdy element, who had a notion it was 
popular to "bait" the Methodists. They prospered after a fashion, nevertheless, 
so that in 1807 they |)ut up theii' first liuilding. This was what was long known 
as the Temple Street Church, on the east side of Temple Street south of Center — 
later used by the fiivst colored congregation, and still later by a Jewish congre- 
gation. Here, in a building unfinished and narrow, they worshipped for the 
next fifteen years. 

The experiences of this congregation, when in 1821 they erected their build- 
ing on the Green, and rebuilt it the following year, have been told elsewhere. 
They did a fine M-ork in that liai'c old building, however, and justified to men in 
New Haven the way of God as they interpreted Him. So did they prosper 
that in a few decades they found it desirable to erect a new l)uilding, which out- 
wardly was more in keeping with the city's improving architecture, at the 
corner of Elm and College streets. As remodeled to the present date, it is 
without and within one of the finest of our church buildings. 

12t5 



AND EASTEKN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 127 

In its century and a quarter tlie ehurt-li lias been sei-ved by a long line of 
able men — many of them, in the days of short pastorates. Now its ministers 
seldom remain less than five years. In the past two decades its pastors have 
been Rev. Charles P. Masden, Rev. Gardner S. Eldridge, Rev. Henry Baker, 
Rev. Francis T. Brown, Rev. Elmer A. Dent, who at the close of his pastorate 
was made a district superintendent, Rev. John W. Laird and the present pastor, 
Rev. W. H. Wakeman. 

The second ]\lethodist Cburcb founded in the New Haven district seems to 
have been that at Westville, to which is assigned the date of 1815. It was 
the outgrowth of the demand of settlers in that important part of the town 
to have their own community life. It has done a sterling work, and has been 
presided over by many able men. Some of its recent pastors have been Rev. Wil- 
liam McNieholl, who was there in 1896, and Rev. L. H. Dorchester, who led the 
church for 1913 and previous years. The present pastor is Rev. William H. 
Mitchell. 

Methodism was inevitably well represented among the colored brethren early 
in the last century, and we find their oldest church to have a record now ap- 
proaching a century in length. What was formerly the John Wesley Church 
on Webster Street, now the Varick ^lemorial, with a recently erected building 
on Dixwell Avenue, dates back to 1820, and has an honorable history. Its 
present pastor is Rev. H. McElroy Stovall. 

Fair Haven also was early represented in Methodism. Its East Pearl Street 
Church dates from 1832, and was started on Exchange Street. Some of its 
recent pastors have been Rev. R. T. ]\IcNicholl, Rev. Edgar C. Tullar, Rev. George 
Benton Smith and Rev. G. E. Warner, who now occupies the pulpit. 

A second African ^Methodist Church dates shortly after the original one. 
It is the Bethel on Sperry Street, founded in 1842. Its pastor is Rev. William 
H. Lacey. 

Grace Methodist Church on Howard Avenue is another of the old churches 
of the city. In a section not now strongly Protestant, and somewhat oversup- 
plied by Methodist Churches, it has done a good work and kept the faith. Its 
present pastor is Rev. H. M. Hancock. 

There was a George Street Methodist Church on the south side of that street, 
almost at its lower end, in 1853. But that locality was rapidly changing from 
residential to commercial, and it presently disappeared. 

The German Methodist Chiirch on Columbus Avenue has a history dating 
from 1854, and has nobly upheld the faith of Wesley among the people of 
Luther. The latest of a long line of faithful pastors is Rev. Herman Blesi. 

Summerfield Church was started in 1871 in a carriage shop in Newhallville, 
they tell us. It built at Dixwell and Henry in 1875, and its present building 
twenty years later. Rev. R. L. Tucker at present ministers to it. 

Howard Avenue Church was established in what must have been in 1872 
the isolated oyster community of Oyster Point, since dignified to City Point. 
It has since served its community well, though changing conditions have been 



128 A MODERN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN 

somewhat against it. Its recent pastors have been Rev. Robert J. Beach, Rev. 
John "W. Mace and Rev. Daniel Dorchester, Jr. 

There was a Methodist group who, previous to 1882, erected a building at 
the corner of Chapel and Day Streets. There was another on Davenport Avenue. 
That year they united, and in 1883 built what we know as Trinity Church at 
George and Dwight Streets. Since then this has been one of the leading ^leth- 
odist churches. Some of the well remembered and honored pastors of the past 
twenty years have been Rev. B. F. Kidder, Rev. H. Frank Rail, Rev. "W. H. 
Kidd, Rev. John W. Maynard, Rev. Hubert B. Munson and the present beloved 
Rev. Arthur H. Goodenough. 

The gap between New Haven and East Haven was being so well filled by 
1886 that a church was demanded at ""Four Corners," and the Methodists 
seized the opportunity. St. Andrews Church serves a new and growing com- 
munity. Its pastor for several years previous to April, 1918, was the Rev. 
John Lee Brooks, who then resigned to enter Y. M. C. A. work in Hartford. 
Rev. F. C. Tucker was assigned to the church in 1918. 

Almost the newest ilethodist Church is Epworth, built in 1892 out in the 
growing section of Orange Street. It has grown to one of the strong congre- 
gations of its city. Some of the men who have served are Rev. Duane N. 
Griffin, now of Hartford, who was pastor in 1896, Rev. Benjamin M. Tipple, 
who was pa.stor in 1898 and the years following, Rev. E. Foster Piper and Rev. 
E. S. Neumann, at jiresent with the cburch. 

The First Swedish Church, at 6.) Park Street, is a recent addition to Meth- 
odism, but prospering. It is in charge of Rev. Fridolph Soderman. 

Recently a third has been added to the group of A. M. E. churches, St. Paul's 
U. A. M. E. Church on Web.ster Sti'eet. Its pastor is Rev. Joseph H. Chase. 

II 

The tirst Bapti.st congregation appeared in New Haven in 1816. when twelve 
disciples of this faith started pulilic worship in the building on the east side 
of Church Street which Trinity had just abandoned for its tine edifice on the 
Green. Their preacher was the Rev. Elisha Cushman. They did not long remain 
on Church Street — perhaps the ])nilding was larger than they needed at that 
time. At any rate, we find them shortly afterward worshipping in the lodge 
room of Amos Doolittle. on College Street north of Elm which "Old Hiram" 
Lodge of Masons had recently occupied. Here they worshipped vuitil 1821. It 
seems that they had an ambition to get a site on the Green, and accounts are con- 
fusing as to whether they ever received the permission. At any rate, they 
did not build there, but went toward the then popular section of Woo.ster Square. 
Their first building was at Chapel and Academy streets. Then, for some reason, 
they moved up to the State House for a time. Then they built again on Chapel 
Street near Olive. Meanwhile a second Baptist Church had been formed, which 
built on the south side of Wooster Square. In 1845, three years after this, the 




CAL\AKV BAPTIST CHURCH, XKW HANKX 



lw?wiii(iii(iiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiimMiiM 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 129 

two congregations united in tlie Wooster Square building. This eliureh was 
nearly destroyed by fire in 1871, but restored and enlarged the following year, 
and was the place of an active church body until 1903, when the First Baptist 
yielded to the common pressure, and changed its location to the corner of 
Livingston and Edwards streets, erecting one of the most attractive buildings 
in the city. 

Many distinguished men have served this church. The first pastor was 
Rev. Henry Lines, in the days previous to 1821. Rev. Benjamin M. Hill 
was with the church from 1821 to 1830. One of its ablest leaders of the early 
period was Rev. S. Dryden Phelps, who was pastor from 1845 to 1873. Some of 
the pastors in the years following were: Rev. J. M. Stitier, Rev. "W. H. 
Butrick, and in the later period, Rev. John H. Mason, Rev. E. C. Sage and 
Rev. Frederick Lent, who has led the congregation in its new location, and 
greatl.y developed the church. 

The second Baptist Church to be founded was Lnmanuel, which the colored 
brethren started in 1856. It has had a prosperous existence ever since. Its 
best years have been in it,s home at Chapel and Day streets, which it purchased 
from the Methodists in 1882. There it has had two distinguished pastorates, 
those of Rev. A. C. Powell and the Rev. David S. Klugh, who 1ms ably led the 
church since 1909. 

In 1868 the German Baptists established their church at George and Broad 
streets, and have done a quiet but valuable work there ever since. Some of their 
pastors have been strong men in the New Haven fellowship, notaljly Rev. Otto 
Koenig and the present pastor. Rev. Julius Kaaz. 

"The church of a thousand welcomes." Calvary Baptist Church calls itself 
in these days. For two decades it Jias through its location as well as through 
the spirit of its leadership and following, occupied a prominent place in the life 
of New Haven. It was founded in 1871, and its ample building at Chapel and 
York streets was erected soon after. In the late eighties it was destroj-ed by 
fire, but was restored in even better form. It has been led by a line of remark- 
able men. Previous to 1888 its pastor was Rev. T. S. Samson. Then Rev. Edwin 
M. Poteat was pastor until 1898, followed by Rev. George H. Ferris, 1899 to 
1905, Rev. Donald D. Munro, 1905 to 1911, Rev. John Wellington Hoag, 1911 
to 1916, and since then Rev. James MeGee. 

The Grand Avenue Baptist Church was founded in 1871, and has vigorously 
represented that creed in Fair Haven. Some of its recent pastors have been 
Rev. E. C. Sage, who later went to the First Church, Rev. Charles B. Smith and 
Rev. C. M. Sherman. The church was without a regular pastor in 1917. 

Nearly the newest but at present one of the most vigorous of the Baptist 
churches is Olivet, founded in 1904 on Dixwell Avenue. It had a struggle for 
the first few years, but came into its own in 1914, when it completed a new and 
handsome building on Dixwell Avenue .iu.st north of its .junction with Shelton. 
The present pastor is Rev. George C. Chappelle. 

Two Baptist churches of recent origin complete the list. They are the 

Vol. I 9 



]30 A MODERN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN 

Swedish Church, founded in 1882, now located at 100 Lawrence Street, of whicli 
Rev. Nathaniel C. Edwell is pastor, and the Italian Baptist on George Street, 
whose present pastor is Rev. G. Basile. 

Ill 

By the end of the first third of the last century New Haven had become 
used to innovations in church population, and had a little outgrown that pro- 
vincialism which would have limited the churches of the cities to those of the 
Congregational order. The beginning of immigration which followed 1820, 
being mostly from Ireland, inevitably brought with it a demand for Roman 
Catholic churches. There were none of these, however, until after 1834. Previous 
to that time the Rev. James Fitton. coming here from Hartford, ministered 
occasionally to those of this faith, but there was no church. By 1834, however, 
there must have been a large number of Catholics in the city, more than enough 
for one church. They were grouped largely in the Second, Third and Fourth 
wards, or the southwestern part of the city. There accordingly, in the year 
mentioned, a building called Christ Church was erected at the corner of Daven- 
port Avenue and York Street. It was so crowded at its dedication that the loft 
containing the organ fell, killing two persons. In this building the first Catholic 
Church of New Haven held its services for the next fourteen years. In 1848 it 
js^as burned. The character of its support and its locality, had considerably 
changed in the meantime, and when a temporary building was erected to replace 
this church, it was located on Church Street, and was named St. Mary's. This 
seems to have been used, however, for more than twenty years, while prepara- 
tions were being made for an edifice which should befit the important center of 
Connecticut Catholicism which New Haven was destined to be. This was the 
new St. Marj-'s Chui'ch on Hillhouse Avenue, sometimes incorrectly called "the 
cathedral," which was completed in 1875 at a cost of $150,000. It was then 
and still is the finest church building in New Haven, and atlequately serves 
a.s the central structure for the people of this faith. 

"Within this period five other churches had sprung up in various sections of 
the city. On the site where the first Christ Church had been burned was in 
1858 erected St. John's Church, which has remained and flourished there ever 
since. Eight years before this, the older part of Grand Avenue had rc(|uired 
its own church, and St, Patrick's was built. In 1865 another congregation had 
acquired what w^as built as the South Congregational Church on Columbus 
Avenue, and had made it the Sacred Heart Church, At least that was the founda- 
tion of the commodious edifice which now stands at the corner of Columbus 
Avenue and Liberty Street. St. Francis had been erected in Fair Haven in 
1867, and a year later so many German Catholics had come to New Haven that 
they had their own church, St, Boniface, at 229 George Street. And not long 
after that Westville established its own church. 

So we find the New Haven of twenty years ago with nine Catholic chiirches. 




ST. MARY'S ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH, NEW HAVEN 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 131 

the growth of the first half century of foiuidatioii. Over them presided priests 
whose names are still familiar to New Haveners. The Rev. John D. Coyle was 
at St. John's, as he is today. Rev. John Russell wa-s at St. Patrick's, where 
he had been since 1883, and where he still is. Rev. Joseph A. Sehaele, the 
present pastor of St. Boniface's, was there in 1918, and had been since 1872. 
Rev. Michael ^IcKeon was then, as now, pastor of the Church of the Sacred 
Heart. Rev. P. M. Kennedy was at St. Francis. Rev. Hugh F. Lilly presided 
over the large force of St. Clary's. This original church has since 1885 been 
in charge of the order of the Dominican Fathers, and its pastors change more 
frequently than do those of the other churches. The Rev. Peter Lotti was at 
St. Michael's in 1898, the Rev. Joseph Senesac at St. Louis, and the Rev. Jere- 
miah Curtin at St. Josei^h's in Westville. 

A review of some of the names before that brings to remembrance some which 
were familiar and honored in New Haven only a little earlier. They were Rev. 
ilatthew Hart and Very Rev. James Lynch at St. Patrick's, Rev. Hugh Carmody, 
D.D.. and Rev. John Cooney at St. John's: Rev. P. A. Gaynor and Rev. Patrick 
JIulholland at St. Francis; Rev. J. A. Mulcahy and Rev. Michael McCune at 
Sacred Heart. Every one of these names means years of priceless experience 
to thou.sauds of faithful Catholics in New Haven. 

Ten years more, and in 1908 we find the nine churches grown to fourteen. 
There were few changes in the pa.storates, except that new men had come with 
the new churches. Rev. E. J. Farmer was at St. Mai-y's. Rev. Robert J. Early 
was at St. Peters, one of the new churches. 

Five years ago, the number of churches had gi'own to sixteen. Today there 
lare seventeen, six of them having their accompanying parochial schools, while 
St. Mary's has both a school and an academy. The list of churches in 1917, with 
their dates of establishment and their present pastors, is as follows : 

St. Mary's, originally Christ Church, founded on Davenport Avenue, in 1834, 
now on Hillhouse Avenue. Pastor, Rev. J. P. Aldridge, O.P. 

St. Patrick's on Grand Avenue, founded in 1850. Pa,stor, Rev. John 
Russell. 

St. John's on Davenport Avenue, founded 1858. Pastor, Rev. John D. 
Coyle. 

St. Francis on Ferry Street, founded 1867. Pastor, Rev. James J. Smith. 

St. Boniface, German, George Street, founded 1868. Pastor, Rev. Joseph A. 
Sehaele. 

St. Joseph's. Westville, founded 1872. Pastor, Rev. John J. McGivney. 

Sacred Heart on Columbus Avenue, founded 1875. Pastor, Rev. Michael 
McKeon. 

St. Louis, French, East Chapel Street, founded 1889. Pastor, Rev. C. H. 
Paquette. 

St. Michael's, Italian, Wooster Place, founded 1890. Pastor, Rev. Leonardo 

Quaglia. 

St. Joseph's, on Edwards Street, founded 1900. Pastor, Rev. A. F. Harty. 



132 A MODERN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN 

St. Peter's, on Kimberly Avenue, founded about 1900. Pastor, Rev. Robert 
J. Early. 

St. Stanislaus, Polish, End and State streets, founded about 1900. Rector, 
Rev. Anthony Mazurkiewiez. 

St. Anthony's, Italian, on Washington Avenue, founded 1903. Pastor, Rev. 
Bartolomeo ]\Iarenchino. 

St. Rose's on Blatchley Avenue, founded 1907. Pastor, Rev. John J. Fitz- 
gerald. 

St. Casimir's, Lithuanian, St. John Street, founded 1908. Pastor, Rev. Vin- 
cent P. Karkauskas. 

St. Brendan's on Carmel Street, founded 1909. Pastor, Rev. John J. 
McLaughlin. 

St. Michael's, Rutlieuian Greek, on Park Street, founded 1910. Pastorate 
supplied. 

These seventeen churclies, as their number stood at the end of 1917, indicate 
something of the large population of this faith in New Haven, and of the great- 
ness of the work done. Their membership, which of course includes the young 
a.s well as the old in their parishes, is doubtless larger than that of the other 
churches combined. Tliey have some of the finest of the church buildings of the 
city, their architecture being always dignified and appropriate. They are a 
tremendous force for community good, holding in churchly ways and to church 
ideals many of the people, old as well as new, who without them might drift and 
lower their standards. They are served by faithful men, many of whom have 
entered heartily into the community life of their adopted city, and all of them 
are a worthy contribution to its citizenship. 

IV 

• There have been representatives of the Jewish faith in New Haven at least 
since 1770, though it appears that not until 1840 was there a group sufficiently 
large to form a "congregation." In that year, when the first authoritative records 
kept by any of the local congregations begin, a company of twenty Bavarians 
formed themselves into a liody for the worship of their fathers' God in their 
fathere' way. In that group, as we get the record, are some names which New 
Haven recognizes and honors now, such luimes as Adler, Lehman, Lautenbach 
and Ullman. 

The story of the formation of that first congregation is not ven- comjiletely 
preserved. From various .sources, including newspaper accounts, we learn that 
in 1846 this congregation dedicated to their purpose a hall on the fourth floor 
of the Brewster Building. Shaar Shalom, "Gate of Peace," is the name given 
to this congregation by one historian, though it is otherwise mentioned as Mish- 
kan Shalom, Tabernacle of Peace and ^Mishkan Israel. It is supposed, however, 
to have been a secession from the first group of Bavarian families. The last 
name is the one which it has held in the seventy years since 1849. It had forty- 




FIRST CHURCH OF CHRIST S( I EXT 1ST, NEW HAVEX 




iUSHKAN ISRAEL SVNAi.ni,! K. M-.W 1IA\ EN 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 133 

nine members then. About that time there was a union of Mishkan Shalom and 
Mishkan Israel under the latter name. 

For six or seven years after 1849 the habitation and the achievements of this 
congregation are hazy. It does not appear that in that time they had any 
synagogue of their own other than rented halls. It was in 1856 that the con- 
gregation acquired the building on Court Street, below Orange, which had 
just been vacated by the Third Congregational Church. There it worshipped 
until 1896, when it built the Temple on Orange Street, the twentieth anniversary 
of whose occupancy it celebrated in 1916. 

The records of this congregation show a succession of men who have been 
trusted and honored by all their fellow citizens of New Haven, as well as by 
their brethren in being made presidents. Among them, in the days previous to 
1872, are .such names as Jacob Thalmon, Israel Bretzfelder, Isaac and Abraham 
Ullman, Meyer Kahn, and Isaac Williams. In the musical history of the syna- 
gogue appears prominently the name of ilorris Steinert, who became master of 
the organ and the choir when the former was introduced in 1863. 

The names of the earlier rabbis have not been completely preserved, but it 
is agreed that Rev. B. E. Jacobs was the first. In 1864, and until 1873, Rabl)i 
Jonas Gabriel served the congi-egation. In his period there were other innova- 
tions as nota-ble as the introduction of the organ and choir just before he came. 
They stopped segregating women in the synagogue sei*viee in 1864, instituting the 
family pew. In 1873 Rabbi Judah Wechsler succeeded Rabbi Gabriel. In his time 
the religious school wa.s instituted, and the women foiuid their place in the 
active institutions and work of the synagogue. There were also radical changes 
in the ritiial. He was succeeded in 1878 by Dr. Kleeberg, a learned man, a power- 
ful leader, recognized, we are told, as the strongest man who up that time had 
led the congregation. 

In 1893 Rabbi David Levy was called from Charleston, and devotedly served 
the congregation — as well as hundreds of other friends whom he made in the 
city — for the next twenty years. Of him his successor feelingly remarks: "The 
simplicity of the sei'\'ices, the reverent decorum, the punctuality of the members 
and the modernization of the religious school are but a few of the lasting effects 
of his services for a period of twenty years. In 1896, under the spell of his 
enthusiasm, together with that of loyal workers whose names are well known, 
the corner stone of the present synagogue was laid in January, and in March 
of 1897 this building was dedicated as a house of God." 

Rabbi Levy was succeeded by Rabbi Louis L. Mann, whose fine scholarship, 
true humanity and earnest enthusia.sm have already endeared him not only to 
his cougi-egation but to all men of the brotherly spirit in New Haven who have 
come in contact with him. The congregation looks forward, under his leadership, 
to one of its most useful periods. 

Some of the presidents of the congregation in the modem period indicate 
most clearly the excellent following which the rabbis have had. Some of them — 



KU A MODEKN lllSTOKV OF NKW HAVEN 

to nuMiti.m only a tVw— iiro M.«os Mann. M. Sonnenborg. -Moritz Spior. (.'harles 
Kloiuor, Max Aillor and Harry W. Aslior. 

Mishkan Israol has for tliroo ilocados boon roeoguizod as the leading and most 
progrossivo synngoguo in Now Havon. but tlioro is a nobU> body of snialler con- 
grogations, sonio of whioh have found their strength in the following tlioy have 
roeeived from a strioter interpretation of the traditions handed down from the 
falhei-s, Oliief of thoin is the Congregation IVnai .laoob. whioh in 181-i left its 
old plaoe of worship on Temple Street for a now and handsome building on 
(^eorgi^ Street, between College and High. Its pivsident is TI. Kesnik. Six other 
eongregations, all of them of the order called '• orthodox. "' uphold the worship 
and traditions of Israel in various parts of tlie eity : Congregation B'nai Soholm, 
})S Olive Stivet, President. Joseph Kaiser; Congregation Reth llaiuedrosh llagodel 
U'nai Israel. U> Rose Street. Tresident Jlax Ri>soff : Congregation Biekur Cholim 
H'nai Abraham. 21 Factory Sti-oet. President David Levy: Congregiition ilgni 
David. 1() Pradley Stivet. President Miehael Givert^: Congregation Shaivi Toure. 
55 York Street. President II. Kosenlvrg: Congregation Shevith Aehim, 10 
Faetorv Stivet, Pivsident L. lAniiie. 



There has Iven a l^nivei"Sj\list Cliuroh in Xew Haven since 1850. and it has 
had an honorable history. Tlunv has not. however, appeaivd to be a tendency 
to incivase of adhoivnt« of this faith in this city, and with the exoeptiou of a few 
yeai-s in this period, when tlieiv was a second church, this cougregatiou has been 
by itself. It had its unpleasjint experiences in former yeare, no doubt, with a 
class of Christians who deemed themselves "evangelical." and some othei-s not. 
but it has survived by deserving. The tii-st pastor of this Church of the Jlessiah. 
as its name is. was the Rev. S. C. Bnlkeley. aud in the begiuuiug of the modern 
period Rev. W. F, Diokerman led the people. For the past eleven veal's Rev. 
The^idore A. Fischer has lH>en its pastor, and has occupied in the couimunity 
a position of t^tccm givatly exceeding the comparative size of this church and 
denomination. 

Then^ aiv six Lutheran eougn>gations in the cit.v. ranging in date from 
Trinity German Lutheran, established in 1S65, to the Fii-st English Lutheran, 
starteti in 1902. The tirst mentioned worshipped for many years on lower George 
Street, but as ahvady told, when the Church of the K4.Hieemer left its house of 
worship at Oranjrt^ and "Wall streets in 1916, it sold to this church. The pastor 
is Rev. Arnold F. Keller. The others in their order aiv: 

German K\-angelical Lutheran Zion. 1SS3, pastor. Rev. Julius C. Kretzman: 
Swctlish Evangelical Lutheran Bethesda. ISSo, pastor. Rev. Carl H. Xelson: 
German Evangi^lioal Lutheran Emanuel. 1S90. pastor. Rev. Henry W. Toight : 
Trinity Danish Lutheran, 1S97, pastor. Rev. P. Christian Stockholm; First 
English Lutheran. 1902, pastor. Rev. John E. Ainsworth, 

Xew Haven's only Presbyterian Church dates from 1S86. and has had in that 




CHURCH OF 'I'llK \IKSSI.\II. CNINKHSAUST, NKW HAVKN 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 135 

time but one pastor, Rev. F. A. M. Brown, D.D. It erected soon after its 
foundation a parish house on the south side of lower Elm Street, and there 
it worshipped until 1907, when it completed a handsome building. The church 
occupies an important position in the religious life of New Haven despite its 
apparent loneliness. 

Two Advent churches liave been established in New Haven to serve this 
peculiar but not numerous ]>ody of the faithful. The Second Advent Church, of 
which Rev. James A. Osborne is pastor, is on Beers Street, and the Seventh Day 
Advent Church, under the leadership of Rev. Sidney E. Norton, meets at 68 
.Brewster Street. 

Christian Science has a live organization in New Haven. Formerly there 
M-ere two churches, but when in 1907 the First Church erected a handsome 
edifice at the corner of Winthrop and Derby avenues the two combined, and 
are doing a strong and progressive work. 

For several years past New Haven has had one Church of God and Saints 
of Christ, more conveniently kno^Mi as the Mormon Church. It is led by Elder 
William A. Blount. 



I 



CHAPTER XVI 
NEW HAVEN'S SCHOOLS 

THEIR DEVELOPMENT AND PRESENT CONSTITUTION— THEIR EXCELLENT EQUIPMENT, 
FORCE AND OPERATION MISCELLANEOUS AND FRn'ATE SCHOOLS 



As an ancient centei* of education, as the pioneer in its state and one of the 
pioneers of the nation, New Haven holds an unchallenged claim. It has this 
place today, not wholly because of its excellent equipment of modern colleges 
and schools, but because of a group of educational forces which nuike it still as 
nearly unique as it was in the beginning. 

Already we have seen how close the school was to the head of the plans for 
an ideal state which the first founders had. We have traced their high-inten- 
tioned, though somewhat disastrous, efforts to make the school the handmaid of 
the church. It is through these that New. Haven has the record of offering to 
the people the first free school of Connecticut. There was in that the germ 
of the common school, though the idea which might have developed from it was, 
to our modern conception of the school function, a strange one. That plan was 
interrupted, and. it came about that for a good many years the distinctively 
common public school idea was partiall,y displaced bj- the grammar or semi- 
private school. The school started under the tutelage of Ezekiel Cheever, con- 
tinued after his departure by more or less effective teachers such as the young 
community could furnish, gave New Haven all the educational service it had 
for twenty years or so. Then it was eclipsed by the result of the will of Governor 
Edward Hopkins, of which we have already heard. The property disposed by the 
will of Governor Hopkins was not distributed till 1660. From that year dates 
New Haven's oldest school, which has been continued without a break to this 
time. There are a few older schools, but the fact that Hopkins Grammar School 
has been continued for over two centuries and a half in the town where it was 
founded, and its distinguished list of graduates, make it one of the most notable 
educational institutions of the country, and indicate something of the prestige 
it has given New Haven. 

Of late years New Haven has developed so excellent a public high school, 
and such a multitude of private college preparatory schools have arisen all over 
the east, that Hopkins Grammar School, which is primarily a preparatory school 

136 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 137 

for Yale, has had a trying competition. The age and bareness of its historic 
building on High Street, and the pressure of Yale's expansion in that direction, 
have caused its removal to an excellent building at 1209 Chapel Street, which 
is used as dormitory and recitation building combined. There it is continuing 
its excellent work and its unbroken history. In 1914 Arthur Burnham Wood- 
ford, who had been its rector for a number of years, retired, and was succeeded 
by George Blakeman Lovell, who had for some time previous been a member 
of its faculty. 

But not only was the seventeenth century the day of private schools, but in 
large measure so were the eighteenth and nineteenth. New Haven has had other 
distinctive schools, which have given it wide fame. Hopkins always headed 
the list, but there was the Laneasterian School of John E. Lovell, established 
in 1822, and following for thirty years a remarkable career during which it 
graduated many of the men who made the New Haven of their day. The feature 
of the Laneasterian s.ystem, as most persons by now have forgotten, was the^ 
employment of the older pupils to teach the younger. It seemed to work 
well under so excellent a master as Mr. Lovell, and appealed to some of the 
other educators of New Haven. The influence of it was felt to the extent 
that it was tried in several of the public schools of New Haven about the 
middle of the last century. It seemed to have its recommendations of econ- 
omy, and it worked very well at that time, but it depended much on the domi- 
nating spirit of the master. In those days of small numbers in the schools, 
when they were simply country schools on a little larger scale, it had some 
educational advantages. By the standards of edncalion which have for some 
time prevailed it is, of course, hopelesslj' primitive. 

There were other notable private schools in that earlier period. One that 
cannot even yet be forgotten was the Russell Military School, known formally 
as General Russell's Collegiate and Commercial Institute on Wooster Place. 
It belonged to the time when Wooster Place was the fashionable center of resi- 
dence, culture and to some extent of education. It was the city's only military 
school, and its fame, in its time, spread far. It was somewhat later than that, 
when Mrs. Sarah L. Cady's West End Institute, a fashionable and able "finish- 
ing school" for girls (perhaps they did not use that term in its early days), 
became famous and made educational prestige for New Haven. 

The modern development of New Haven's public schools began, one may 
judge, about 1860, when first the high school was established. Its location was 
at the first near corner of Orange and Wall streets, where the building named 
from James Hillhouse was erected by the city in 1871. It was a small beginning. 
But the building was an ambitious one by the standards of that time, and in it 
for the next three decades some of the best educational work of Connecticut was 
done. Little could the founders of that high school in the '60s foresee the 
time when New Haven would have a high school with a membership larger than 
the average American college, with a force of teachers considerably larger than 
Yale College had at the time. 



138 A MODERN HISTORY OF xXEW HAVEN 

Large as it is, the high school of today is only proportional to the public 
educational system of New Haven. A glimpse of it is impressive in many ways. 
This city of perhaps 175,000 people is served by a high school which really is 
four schools in one. There is the high school proper, with its college prepara- 
tory, classical, scientific and English courses; there is the manual training 
school, with its scientific and general coupes; there is the commercial school, 
soon to have its own separate building, with the varied courses which the 
business college teaches; there are the Boardman apprentice shops, with their 
classes in shop work, 'domestic science and the trades. To this, doubtless, should 
be added the evening high school, which is yearly coming nearer to the presen- 
tation, in necessarily somewhat abridged form, of all the advantages which the 
day schools oft'er. 

This high school lias a force of principal and six heads of departments, with 
a student counsellor and a special principal in charge of the afternoon sessions. 
There is a force of 114 teachers for the three departments, besides the Boardman 
apprentice shops, and for tliese there are, in all, twenty-seven teachers. In all 
departments of tlie liigh school there are this year 4,007 pupils. These taper 
down l)y classes, from 1,412 in the first year class, 1,002 in the second year 
class, to 738 in the junior class and 644 in the senior class. This last figure will 
represent, approximately, the number in the graduating class. There are 178 
pupils in the aiiprcntice shops, better known as the Trade School. There are 
sixteen post-graduates. 

There is a group of buildings in the high school system, and it is bound to be 
greater. When the great building on York Square was erected in 1903, it was 
expected to be ample for the school needs for years to come. AVithin less than 
ten years it was foixnd hopelessly inadequate to accommodate all the pupils at 
one session. It was planned to accommodate 1,562 pupils. It now has. as we 
have seen, over 4,000. Though an addition accommodating 768 pupils in its six- 
teen rooms was made in 1914, it was still necessary, as it had been three years 
earlier, to resort to the expedient of double sessions. First the first year class 
was made into an afternoon school, and by 1917 it was found necessary to divert 
150 of the .second year pupils to this school. At the end of 1917 the superin- 
tendent reported that the building had acconnnodated in the previous year 
2,500 pupils, which he considered its limit. 

The remainder of the 4,000, of course, were in the Boardman Manual Training 
School Building on Broadway. Here the manual training courses are taken care 
of, as well as the commercial department. A new building for this department 
has been planned, but its construction is delayed. The greater portion of the 
Boardman building is occupied by the pupils of the Trade School, who need 
more room in proportion to their number. 

So the problem of New Haven's growing high school has been solved for 
the time. The division of the high school into local parts in different sections 
of the city, which seemed at one time inevitable, has been, at least post- 
poned. It has been hoped to still further postpone it by the formation of what 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 139 

is called the Junior High School. This is a separate school consisting of grades 
seven, eight and uiue; that is, the last two years in the grammar school and 
the first in the high school. This plan, discussed at some length by the super- 
intendent in his last annual report as the most feasible means of relieving the 
high school pressure, was expected to be tried out, possibly in the present year. 
The plan intends the establishment, in all sections of the city, of a sufficient 
number of these junior high schools to perhaps permanently relieve the pressure 
on the central building. 

The grammar and primary grades of the city are now served by forty-seven 
buildings, in addition to the schools at the New Haven and St. Francis orphan 
asylums. In them are 614 classrooms, with a total of 26,139 seats, to take care 
of a .school registration of 27,242. The total number of teachers, including the 
entire high school force, the teachers in the grammar, primary and kindergarten 
grades, and the supervisors and assistants, was in 1917 820. 

The largest school in New Haven is Hamilton Street, with thirty-one rooms' 
and 1.523 pupils. Greene Street, at the corner of Wooster Square, comes next, 
with nineteen rooms. 942 pupils. Ivy Street, at the corner of Ivy Street and 
"Winchester Avenue, comes third, with 882 pupils. These are among the older 
schools of the city. There are fourteen other schools each having the full eight 
grades, ranging from 860 down to 158 pupils in number, and in age from the 
historic Lovell School, built back near the middle of the last century, to Bar- 
nard School, opened in 1913, out on the western edge of the city. Two schools, 
the Dixwell Avenue, with five rooms and 164 pupils, and the school of St. 
Francis Orphan Asylum, with eight rooms and 384 pupils, have only seven 
grades. Seventeen have only six grades. These are mostly in districts, some 
of them congested, where pupils are pi-one to leave school early. Three schools 
in the Wooster Square district. Dante, Fair Street and Wooster, stop with the 
fifth grade. Eight have only four grades, these being mostly subsidiary to 
larger buildings in their district. The New Haven orphan asyhim school, being 
restricted to children quite young, has only two grades. The schools of New 
Haven offer a most favorable field for the study of the process of race amalga- 
mation which means so much to New Haven. They reflect, at the same time, 
the nature of the city's changing citizenship. They moreover give reassurance, 
as has elsewhere been said, to those who fear that the task of making the raw 
material into Americans is not being well performed. In these schools forty-five 
different nationalities are represented. They are American, Armenian, Austrian, 
Australian, Belgian, Bohemian, Canadian, Chinese, Cuban, Danish, Dutch, 
Eg^-ptian, Engli.sh, Finnish, French, Galician, German, Greek, Hungarian, 
Irish, Italian, Japanese, Lithuanian, Negro, Newfoundlander, Norwegian, 
Philippine, Polish, Portuguese, Pru.ssian, Rumanian, Russian, Scandinavian, 
Scotch, Serbian. Shetland Islander, Slavonian, South American, Spanish, 
Swedish, Swiss, Syrian, Turkish, Welsh and West Indian. 

Of the 27,029 children in the schools, 8,115, or less than one-third, may be 
called American. Italv, not America, heads the list of nationalities with 8,576. 



140 A MODEKN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN 

Theu follow American, 8,115 ; Russian, 4,486 ; Irish, 1,304 ; German, 926. There 
are half as many Russians as Americans. Yet the mixture in the schools seems 
hopeless. There is only one school in the city, the Dante, which is practically 
a school of single nationality. Of the 437 there, 434 are Italians, two are 
Americans and one is Russian. Italians largely predominate in seven other 
schools, having from 58 to 97 per cent. These are Woostef, Fair Street, Hamil- 
ton, Greene Street, Washington, Ezekiel Cheever and Eaton. In nine schools, 
out of a total registration of 6,009, 4,725 are Italians. In four schools, 
Zuuder, Hallock Street, Webster and Serantou Street, Russians predominate, 
having a registration of 1,352 out of a total of 2,432. 

There are marked shifts of this population as well. Schools in the old Welch 
district, which were once largely Russian, now have a lai-ger number of Italians 
than Russians. These are Cedar Street, Prince Street and Welch. But of 
these two nationalities together there are 1,633 children out of a total of 2,235. 
The Italian seems to be universal. In every school in the city he is represented 
by from five to 1,294 children. The Russian, how-ever, is almost as widely dis- 
tributed. The American manages to be represented in all but one of the schools 
of the city, the small Greenwich Avenue School. In the last three years, the 
number of Americans in the schools has increased 1.3 per cent, the Italians have 
increased 13.5 per cent, the Russians have increased 11.9 per cent, the Irish 
have decreased 16.1 per cent, the Germans have decreased 30.7 per cent. There 
are other changes. Of the pupils now in the schools, 1,754 were born abroad. 
But this is 1,642 fewer than for 1915, and 571 fewer than for 1916. This may 
be accounted for, perhaps, by the recent checking of immigration. In the High 
School there are thirty-one different nationalities. A little less than half the 
total, or 1,822, are Americans. 

II 

The New Haven school organization now consists of a board of education 
of seven members, appointed by the mayor, a superintendent, three a.ssistant 
superintendents, a secretary of the board and an inspector of school buildings. 
The members of the board, at the beginning of 1918 were: Leo H. Herz, presi- 
dent of the board ; Henry A. Spang, H. ]M. Kochcrsperger, Dr. George Blumer, 
Mrs. Percy T. Walden, William A. Watts and Joseph T. Anquillare. Frank 
H. Beede has been .superintendent for the past eighteen years, succeeding Calvin 
N. Kendall in 1900. The change from the system of supervising principals to 
assistant superintendents was made in 1912, and had the immediate effect of 
demoting, at least as to responsibility and salary, three of the veteran prin- 
cipals and able educators of the school system, whose work had deserved for 
them a better fate. The present assistant superintendents are Junius C. Knowl- 
ton, Claude C. Rus.sell and John C. McCarthy. George T. Hewlett is the sec- 
retary of the board, having ably served since 1903, when the late Horace Day 
closed his labors after a service of forty-three years with the board. The in- 
spector of school buildings is Dennis J. Maloney. 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 141 

The present principal of the High School is Charles Kirsehner, a native of 
New Haven, a graduate of the school and of Yale, and an able executive and 
educator, proved so by his service in the most trying period the school has so 
far known. The heads of departments are: Classical, Alfred E. Porter; Com- 
mercial. John D. Houston ; English, Susan S. Sheridan, one of the veteran teachers 
of the school; Mathematics. Arthur E. Booth; Modern Languages, Thomas P. 
Tayloi-. Janet M. Purdue is the student coimselor, and Ralph Wentworth is 
principal in charge of the afternoon sessions. 

The Boardman apprentice sliops, now forming a vitally important depart- 
ment, not only of the Higli School, but of the whole New Haven system of 
education, are now directed by Ralph 0. Beebe. This school, popularly known 
as the Trade School, was established in 1913. and has, under wise foundation and 
careful administration, made a record which has given it high distinction among 
schools of its clas-s in the country. It was planned, not on the model of any 
other trade school, but solely for New Haven's needs. Its central purpose was 
to offer, to the large and rapidly growing numlier of New Haven boys and girls 
whom the urge of economic necessity was driving into gainful occupations as 
soon as the law would permit them to leave school, aid to choice of the kind of 
work for which they were best adapted, and a direct fitting for that work. It 
was to serve the further and not less essential purpose of offering an inducement 
for a year or two years of further continuance in school, with the general edu- 
cation and training that might -accompany the special education, of hundreds 
who were liesitating between school and Avork. and liable to choose the latter 
in following what seemed the line of least resistance. 

The school was opened with Frank L. Glynn as director. Under his experi- 
enced and progressive leadership, it at once took high rank among institutions 
of its sort. There was at first opposition to it from organized labor bodies, who 
suspected its effect as inimical to them. But discreet management has substan- 
tially overcome this opposition, and all workers in all trades in New Haven now 
pretty well understand that the school will be a great help to the proficiency of 
their lines of work. In 1916 Mr. Glynn was called to a larger work in "Wisconsin, 
and Robert O. Beebe, who had for some years been the assistant of Major Hewlett 
in the office of the Board of Education, was made director. He has shown a 
broad conception of the opportunities and purposes of the school, and has 
excellently developed its courses. 

The school functions now through twelve departments, each representing 
an important trade or vocation. The one regularly containing the greatest 
number of pupils is the department of machine shop practice, in which forty- 
five boys are learning by actual work in well equipped machine shops to do 
practically expert machine making. Their work is not merely practice. There 
product is finished and salable, and finds a market, as well as, in some cases, an 
actual advance demand. The income from this source alone makes a material 
reduction in the cost of running the school. Next to this the most largely at- 
tended branch is the girls' department, in which thirty-three pupils are learning 



142 A MODERN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN 

dressmaking, millinery and cooking, as well as housekeeping and the highei 
branches of domestic science. Twenty-three boys are in the drafting room. 
Twenty are in the woodworking trades, which are a practical preparation for all 
branches of carpentry and cabinet making. The electrical department has seven- 
teen pupils, and teaches with practical experience all the leading branches of 
applied electricity. There is a printing department, which had nine pupils last 
year. This teaches practical printing, including the use of the linotype machine, 
a good machine and an instructor being constantly available. This department 
prints many of the papers and pamphlets used by the educational board and the 
schools in their work. There is a class of seven in pattern making, a class of 
seven in plumbing, of five in book binding, and of two in forging. This was 
the first trade school in the country to open a department for the teaching of 
painting and decorating. In that class there were ten boys in 1917. The mem- 
bers of this class have done much of the work of this sort for the department 
of schools whenever new rooms were opened or it was necessary to redecorate 
old ones. As an instance, the last report of the Board of Education said: "On 
November 9, 1917, the Board of Education held its first meeting in the new 
offlees in the old county court house. The work of refini.shing these offices was 
largely done by apprentices from the Boardmau apprentice shops." 

Other reports within the past few years have shown that all the finished 
niatci-ial produced and the work done liy apprentices from this school either 
brings in or saves the city money amounting in the year to between $15,000 
and $16,000, a very appreciable portion of its cost of maintenance. 

Once in three months the department in salemanship of the school enrolls 
a class of twenty-five members, composed of salesmen or women from depart- 
ment stores, who are given efficient instruction in this essential art. 

At present the number of those seeking instruction in the apprentice shops, 
especially in some departments, exceeds the accommodations, and as soon as the 
completion of the building for the commercial school takes this department out of 
the Roai-dman Building, these vacated rooms will be made available for the 
apprentice shops. The school is run on the plan of any industrial institution, 
from eight in the morning till five in the afternoon on five days in the week, and 
even the Saturday session is now being extended to all the day. It is kept in 
session practically all the year, with the exception of part of a month in the 
summer. The evening department, an increasingly important one, is now open 
for the full six nights. The Saturday afternoon and evening sessions are held 
to accommodate evening school pupils for whom there is not room at the regular 
evening se.s.sions. 

The evening schools of New Haven have changed in twenty years from being 
merely missionary to definitely practical in their character. There is still the 
familiar irregularity in their attendance, so that figiares of registration are 
unsatisfactory and in a measure deceiving. But schools which at first were run 
as social centers, where those who took the notion might come and go practically 
as they pleased during the evening school session, now have taken on the char- 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 143 

acter of practical, efScient schools, with a definite course and required work. 
Their season is comparatively short, but each year tliey grant formal diplomas 
to those who complete the required course, and have their regular graduation 
exercises. In the past year the demand for entrance to some branches of them 
has been such that a registration fee of one dollar was demanded in the High 
School and in the Boardman apprentice shops, as a guarantee of good faith 
and serious purpose. In the past year classes have been conducted at the 
Winchester Repeating Arms Company, and the prediction is officially made 
that the time may come when evening and continuation schools will be eon- 
ducted in all the large factories. 

Some of the most important of the instruction in the New Haven schools 
is directed by supervisors, each with his or her specialty. New Haven was one 
of the first cities in the country to establish the teaching of vocal music in all 
its grade schools, and the work done in that department for fifty years by him 
who came to be the loved "music ma.ster, " Prof. Benjamin Jepson, attracted 
national attention. Beginning with 1864, he developed a training system which 
left its mark for the better on every pupil that passed through the schools. 
He was able to make singers of only a few, but he gave those few an invaluable 
start, and he improved all. The city's schools became famous for their musical 
instruction, and it was always possible to raise at short notice a chorus of from 
fift.v to two hundred school children to sing on any public or patriotic occasion. 
Professor Jepson, at times in his career as music supervisor, conducted singing 
classes in many of the towns around New Haven. He also developed an excel- 
lent .series of school music readers, which is still in use in many of the schools 
of the country. His work in the New Haven schools is continued by Supervisor 
William E. Brown, with two a.ssistants. 

The present plan not only develops chorus singing to the highest practicable 
point, but gives some degree of attention to individual singing wherever 
it seems desirable. It also provides instruction on the violin to many pupils 
of the schools — as many as 300 from the fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth grades 
in 1917. In the High School choinis work is especially developed by boys' and 
girls' glee clubs, and instrumental ability is encouraged by a high school or- 
chestra under competent instruction. 

New Haven has made a most valuable feature of the teaching of drawing 
and art in its schools under the supervision of Almond H. Wentworth. The 
work is so conducted that even in eases where there is not the slightest natural 
inclination in this direction, the mind of the pupil is arrested and fixed for a 
time on this subject, and at least something is accomplished in the teaching of 
good taste and an appreciation of the beautiful. 

In some school systems penmanship may have become a lost art, but not in 
New Haven. Supervisor Harry Houston has found just the points in which 
penmanship is practical even in these days of typewriters and mechanical book- 
keeping, and dwells on these points in his direction of writing. His own skill 
and knowledge of the subject, developed in a series of school copy books which 



144 A MODERN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN 

many schools of New England have adopted as standard, have given him an 
almost national reputation in his specialty. 

Henry J. Sehnelle, the present supervisor of physical training, has developed 
his practically new department to a most significant degree. Something more 
than just perfunctory school drills are given to the children. They are given 
a practical groundwork in the art of good living, in the fundamentals of good 
health. Under his direction leagues in baseball, football, basketball, track and 
field sports have been organized in many of the schools. School yard play is 
supervised, and the teachers are made competent phy.sical instructors. Even the 
men principals have been enthused to the point of personal participation in 
competitive sports. 

Sewing has become more and more of a practical and applied subject of 
late years in the schools, particularly under the present supervisor. Miss Jennie 
R. Messer. Important instruction is given in things which every woman needs 
to know, and given in such a manner that it has its lasting effect. 

There are othei' leaders in the New Haven schools for the past twenty years 
who should be mentioned, though they have been identified with no specialty. 
Frank J. Diamond has been in this period principal of the Greene Street School, 
and no teacher in New Haven has done a more valuable work just where the 
tide of alien population has flowed strongest. In a school of 927 pupils, where 
82 were born abroad, and 735 are of Italian parentage, with eighteen other 
nationalities besides American represented, he and his loyal corps of teachers 
show a composite product of true Americanism that is a credit to their work 
and a reassurance to all who tremble at the effect of the alien strains in our 
national blood. In another way, and with a different problem, Sherman I. 
Graves at Strong School in Fair Haven has done as valuable a work. No teacher 
in all our schools has finer ideals than he; none loves better the community of 
his adoption. It was his dream to make this school a transforming community 
center. He had made it a wonderful school when fire in 1911 destroyed his beauti- 
ful building, but his hopes rose with the new one from the ashes. He has not been 
able to do all he hoped to do. Untoward events have worked against him. But 
the discerning know the worth of his faithful work. His school also is a melting 
pot. with twenty-one nationalities among its 514 pupils, but fine is the gold it 
turns out. The third of a trio of strong men wrestling with gi-eat problems is 
David D. Lambert at Truman Street School, with 838 pupils in his charge, 
122 of them born abroad, 281 of them Russian, 169 of them Italian, eighteen 
other races represented, only 227 of them called American. He also has faithfully, 
quietly, hopefully worked on. If he had no other reward than the sight of the 
results he is accomplishing for the future of New Haven, he might well be content. 

Perhaps the best tribute to teachers and pupils alike is a glimpse, in this 
time of national crisis, of the unusual activities of the schools. In every instance 
teachers have been loyal. There has been no hint of enemy propaganda, though 
nearly all races are represented among the teaching force. Under such an in- 
spiration, the pupils have been as loyal. They have worked, in and out of 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 145 

school, for the commou cause. The boys have cultivated war garcleus and farms, 
and the girls have sewed and knitted for the Red Cross. There has been com- 
mendable activity and hard work in the raising of money for various purposes. 
The last report shows that i|fl88,720 worth of Liberty Bonds have been pur- 
chased in the schools. Thrift stamps to the amount of .$13,912 were taken. The 
contribution to the Y. M. C. A. was .$6,288, and 416 joined the senior and 3,004 
the junior Red Cross. There were given $3,850 from the High School for the 
Soldiers' and Sailors' Library Fund; $1,321.28 altogether for the relief of 
French children, for the Knights of Columbus Fund and for Red Cross seals, 
and $477.18 for various other causes. Over 20,000 knitted and sewed articles 
have been given. The school gardening has been faithful, intelligent and en- 
thusiastic. And by no means least if last, eight of the male teachers of the 
High School have left their work to enter the war service of the United States. 

Mention has elsewhere been made of the gradual development of the use of 
the school buildings for other purposes and at other times than the sti-ict school 
hours. School buildings have been opened, not only as community centers, but 
for (lances, for Red Cross activities, for lectures on food conservation and 
good citizenship, as study rooms in congested districts, where home advantages 
were lacking to the pupils, for the use of exemption boards and as polling places. 
This last use marks one of the greatest improvements in political procedure that 
has come to New Haven in the past two decades. 

The attendance at the New Haven schools has from the first more than kept 
pace with the building facilities, notably so in the High School, as we have seen. 
With fifty -six buildings in all now at the command of the department, the attend- 
ance has been taken care of very well for the past year, without the addition of 
more buildings. But more are in progress. Plans and specifications for a com- 
mercial school building, accommodating 2,000 pupils, have been x>repared, and 
contract awarded and work begun, but for various reasons it has been halted. 
The city has also purchased a site for a new building in the Webster district, 
at the northeast corner of Howe and Oak streets, where a building will be con- 
structed a.s early as practicable. 

Ill 

Mention has elsewhere been made of the New Haven State Normal and 
Training School, a part of New Haven's public school system, though maintained 
by the state. It was established, as one of the state's teacher training schools, 
in 1900, and under the guidance of Arthur B. Morrill and an excellent corps of 
teachers, has since been contributing materially to the raising of the standard 
of common school education in Connecticut. Working in conjunction with the 
State Board of Education, the normal schools of Connecticut have steadily 
been seeking to replace the untrained teacher, throughout the state, with the 
graduates of these schools. As the quality of training given in these schools has 
risen with every passing year, this effort has resulted in an increasing success, 

Vol. I 10 



146 A MODERN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN 

and all but a ver.v few of the schools of Connecticut are now supplied with 
graduates from either the Williniantie, the New Britain, the New Haven or 
the Daubury school. 

Of these institutions the greatest success should be expected of New Haven, 
because of its location in a great center of education, and because of the valuable 
aid it gets from the New Haven schools. Four of the schools of the city, located 
near the norma] school building, were set apart as "model" schools, the state 
paying the excess salary necessary to secure superior teachers in all their rooms. 
To these schools all second year pupils of the Normal School are sent on alternate 
months, and given practical experience and criticism in teaching. The result 
is as nearly an experienced product as it is possible for a mere school to turn out. 
The City of New Haven has the first selection from each graduating class, 
choosing from the New Haven pupils as many of those of highest standing as it 
needs to fill prospective vacancies in its schools. But the school exists to supply 
country as well as city vacancies, and country schools need the graduates most. 
So it is the especial effort of some of the teachers to enthuse the pupils with a 
love for the country school, and an appreciation of the opportunities for original 
work and high influence which it offers. It shoiild be noted that this laudable 
effort has not been without its marked success. 

In many respects Westville has preferred to keep its own identity, and not 
the least of these is in its school management. Of the almost 37,000 children of 
school age now in the whole town of New Haven nearly 2,000 attend the schools 
of Westville. The district has three handsome and modern sehoolhouses. The 
Edgewood School, which takes care of the population of the newer portion of 
Westville, is on Edgewood Avenue, not far from the point at which it ci-osses 
West River, and is, ai>pai'ent!y. in the very edge of the Westville district. But 
the district extends to the east of the river, and apparently well into the city. 
It is a well built and finely appointed building, a ci-edit to the district. 

The L. Wheeler Beecher Memorial School is the newest of Westville 's build- 
ings, situated far to the opposite edge of the section, on the upper part of Blake 
Street. It has seven rooms, and is in every way a modern building. 

The Frances Benton Memorial School takes care of most of the older part 

of Westville. and has eight rooms. It adequately completes Westville 's excellent 

outfit of schools. But the section is growing fast in population, and Westville 

knows that it will have to provide more schools at no very distant time. 

William F. H. Breeze is at present the Westville superintendent. 

The number of children attending the public schools in the year 1917 was 

27,005. Besides these 4,18-1 were reported as attending ])rivate schools. Of 

these a very large percentage were, of course, in the ])arochial schools, of which 

there are seven: Sacred Heart, St. Boniface, St. Francis, St. Mary's Academy 

and St. Mary's Parochial School, St. Peter's Parochial School and St. Rose's. 

There are three other principal private schools, most of them for younger 

children, doing excellent work. Of these the best known are the Gateway School, 




ST. FRANCIS Kd.MAN ( A I IKM.H rill |;( ||. s( IKiHL AND Ki:( TdKY. XI'AV IIAVKN 




ST. FRANXIS ORPHAX ASYI.L'^I. XEW HAVEX 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 147 

concluoted bj- Miss Alice Reynolds; Miss Mary S. Johnson's and the Barnes 
School. The Hebrew Institute does an excellent special work. 

Some twenty years ago, when the physical culture movement first became 
popular, Dr. William G. Anderson, directoi' of the Yale gymnasium, started 
a gymnastic training class for young ladies. It soon grew to a size which de- 
manded a gymnasium of its own, and Doctor Anderson built one on York Street. 
About 1907 it outgrew its quarters there, and Dr. E. Herman Arnold, who by 
this time had taken the business over from Doctor Anderson, the Anderson 
Gymnasiitm Company having been formed, moved it to a house which had been 
purchased near the corner of Chapel Street and Sherman Avenue. Here the 
enterprise 1 lossomed out as the New Haven Normal School of Gymnastics. Siuce 
that time the company has acquired five buildings on the Chapel Street and 
Sherman Avenue sides of this corner, and has built a large gymnasium, dining 
hall and dormitory besides. It is said to have a high standing among the schools 
of this iii.ture in the country, training young women to be physical directors, 
and its graduates are in great demand. 

The excellent instruction given by Joseph Giles, in his school in the Insur- 
ance Building, is remembered by some whose educational course was finished 
only a few years ago. Of tutoring schools New Haven always has, because of 
the presence of the university, an abundance. Of these the most important is 
the University School, which George L. Fox, long a well known New Haven 
educator, conducts. The Booth Preparatorj^ School, and the Rosenbaum School, 
which has departments both in New Haven and Milford, are among the other 
schools of this class. 

There are two notalJe private music schools, that of George Chadwick Stock 
and the New Haven School of Music. 

Of business schools New Haven has some progressive representatives. One 
of the leaders, now making great strides in education of this sort, is the one 
formerly known as the Yale Business College. At the beginning of this period, 
when the chief advertisement if not the chief function of a business college 
was to teach flowery penmanship, R. C. Loveridge made the beginning of its 
fame. It prospered as the Yale Business College luider various managements, 
and about 1907 it came into the hands of Nathan B. Stone, an able teacher and 
a good organizer. In 1916 he changed its name to the Stone Business College, 
and has continued it as a complete school of sterling business education which 
is a credit to its name. 

The Butler Business School, conducted for some years in the Y. M. C. A. 
Building on Temple Street, has had a long and honorable existence, and grounded 
hundreds of young people in efficient business practice. It is now conducted by 
Sidney Perlin Butler. The Connecticut Business University has been for several 
years conducted by Henry C. Tong, and is doing excellent work. The Stebbing 
Commercial and Secretarial School, in the Chamber of Commerce Building, has 
also a large business, and is said to be filling an excellent purpose in fitting for 
its specialty. 



CHAPTER XVII 
NEW HAVEN'S LIBRARIES 

TARDY APPEARANCE OF A PUBLIC LIBRARY, AND ITS EARLY HISTORY — ERECTION OF THE 
NEW BUILDING THE PUBLIC LIBRARY'S BRANCHES AND USE 



We raa.y imagine that the greater part of the reading of New Haveu previous 
to the opening of the nineteenth century was done by the students and graduates 
of Yale College. At any rate, the college library was made to suffice the com- 
munity up to that time. There seems soon after to have been a sufficient demand 
for books to promote the establishment of private societies for the purchase of 
books which their members used in tuni. This was the crude formation of the 
private library. There were two of these in 1815, the Mechanics' Library and 
the Social Library. The members of the latter were very strict in their interpre- 
tation of literature, for by their constitution no "novel, play or tale" could be 
purchased e.xeept by a three-fourths vote of the members present. The two 
liliraries together had a collection of books numbering 1,300 volumes. In 1826 
tlie Young Men's Institute, another private library, was formed, and still exists. 
It has a strong foundation and support, and an excellent popular library, fitted 
to what its patrons believe to be their needs. Its location is at 847 Chapel 
Street. It has 27,438 volumes, and its additions in 1916 were 764. Its librarian 
is Abigail Dunn. 

Under the impression, as are most of us, that the public librarv is a long 
established New England institution, we learn with some surprise that in New 
Haven it runs back only thirty-two years. Nor wa.s New Haven so comparatively 
backward, for Bridgeport is the only city in the state that had one any earlier. 
The position taken by New Haven was that Yale University, with its notably 
large library, .supplied all the needs not met by the private institutions. So the 
situation might have stood much longer than it did, had not New Haven found 
a library benefactor, and one, strange to say, who had but recently come to dwell 
in the city. 

Philip Marett was a Boston merchant who had accumulated a fortune in 
the Ea.st India trade, and when he was reidy to retire, showed his great dis- 
crimination by choosing New Haven as the place for spending his leisure years. 
His coming was about 1852, and from the beginning of his acquaintance with the 

148 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 149 

city he never ceased to marvel that such an intellectual center as New Haven 
had no public librarj- after the manner of Boston. He took no consequent action 
for fifteen years, however, but in 1867 he drew his will, disposing of a fortune 
of $650,000. Of that he gave one-tenth to the City of New Haven in trust, 
its income to be u,sed "for the purchase of books for the Young Men's Institute, 
or any public library which may from time to time exist in said city." Mr. 
Marett died in 1869. but it was eleven years later before New Haven did any- 
thing looking toward the active improvement of the opportunity which he had 
opened. 

In 1880 Henry G. Lewis was mayor, and he took the bull liy the horns. 
That year be called a meeting of the citizens for the purpose of starting a 
public library, that being the obvious action necessarily precedent to the utilizing 
of a fund for the purchasing of books for such an institution. At that meeting 
$1,600 was pledged, and citizens donated 300 books for a start. The city wa-s 
asked to furnish quarters for the library. The Court of Common Council, ac- 
cordingly, graciously accepted the offer "to establish and maintain a free 
library," and granted the use of a room or rooms in the old State House for 
such a purpose. The old State House in 1880 was not in a condition to make it 
ideal for library use, but it was at least a local habitation. 

Mayor Lewis at once appointed a committee to go ahead, making the number 
encouragingly thirteen. The committee determined to undertake the raising 
of $100,000, by dividing the city into districts, and setting 400 canvassers at 
work. We may imagine that this ta.sk was a much greater one than that, thirty- 
five years later, of securing two and one-half times that sum for the New Haven 
Orphan Asylum. At any rate, the effort seems to have netted at the time only 
$5,535 — in pledges only. However, the committee went ahead, put their 300 
books in a room in the State House, and opened their library, with George 
Douglas Miller as librarian. But that was a ridiculously small collection for the 
time, and the most of the readers in the community, we may imagine, preferred 
to pay a little for the greater facilities of the Young ]\Ien's Institute. At all 
events, financial troubles came, and the required money came not. so the effort 
was abandoned after an indifferent year or so, and the precious 300 books were 
turned over for safe keeping to the New Haven Colony Historical Society. 

It was nearly five years before anything more was done. In 1885, mere pride 
moved some of the citizens who realized that it was a shame for a city of 
75,000 people, with a library fund at its disposal, to be without a public library. 
Perhaps nothing would have immediately resulted, even then, if the Young 
Men's Institute had not precipitated matters. It had a claim, it will be re- 
membered, on the ]\Iarett legacy. So to avoid complication, its directors voted to 
appoint a committee of five to confer with a city committee on the feasibility of 
turning the institute library over to the city, on condition that it be made a free 
public library. The Court of Common Council was petitioned to appoint such 
a committee, and Councilmen Burton Mansfield, George D. Watrous, Fitzpatriek 
and Tuttle, and Aldermen Whitney, States and Goebel were chosen. The com- 



150 A MODERxN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN 

itiittce seeurcd the authorization of a bond issue of $100,000 for the library pur- 
pose, and a sub-committee was appointed to complete the deal with the directors 
of the Young Men's Institute. But the matter hung fire for a year, and no 
tangible results appeared. 

Meanwhile, A. Maxcy Hiller of the Council drew up aud had passed a reso- 
lution inquiring why the contract had not been made in accordance with the 
Institute offer, and the president of the Council appointed Mr. Hiller and 
Councilman J. Rice Winchell a committee to answer the question by investiga- 
tion. They saw President Pardee of the Institute, and learned that a contract 
was being drawn up, and would soon be presented to the city for acceptance. 
It was presented several months later. It provided that the Young Men's Insti- 
tute should lease all its books and property to the city for ten years; that the 
city should pay all the cost of maintaining the library; that the Y^oung Men's 
In.stitute should have a majority on the Iioard of directors; and that the contract 
might be renewed or dissolved at the pleasure of either party at the expiration 
of the ten years. 

There were reasons why this did not seem to the Council a good plan for 
the city. Some discerning members saw wherein this fell short of tieing a free 
pnl)lic library. The outcome was that the Council amended the contract so as to 
provide that if the Young Men's Institute turned its propcrt.y over to the City of 
New Haven, it should be permanently, not for a term of ten .years, with a 
string attached. Whereupon the directors of the Institute withdrew their offer 
and contract, and voted that their library should continue to be a private in- 
stitution. Such it is up to the present time, serving an excellent purpose 
and doing a good work for those who sufficiently appreciate a good library to 
pay a small annual sum for its privileges. 

But this did not get a free public library for New Haven. The matter 
had been sufficiently agitated, however, so that public sentiment warranted 
the Council in going ahead with the matter, which it did, under the leader- 
ship of Councilmen Hiller and Winchell, to whom due credit should be given. 
The fonner at once introduced a resolution providing that the city establish 
a free public library under the statute laws, and it was passed with an amend- 
ment that the number of directors be ten. Therewith went an appropriation 
of $13,000 to start the library, and the thing was really begun. 

The first board of directore, appointed by the Hon. George F. Holcomb, 
who had succeeded the Hon. Henry 6. Lewis as mayor, consisted of these 
men : His Honor, the Mayor, James N. States, Charles Kleiner, Charles S. 
Mersick, Josepii Porter, Prof. Charles S. Hastings, Burton Mansfield, Hon. John 
H. Leeds, Frank L. Bigelow and Cornelius T. Driscoll. Mr. Leeds was chosen 
president of the board, and Burton Mansfield secretary and treasurer. Willis 
K. Stetson was cho.sen librarian, and has continued to sei've up to this time, 
an honored period of thirty-two years, for this foundation was laid in 1886. 

The matter of site was the first problem. The old State House was about 
to he torn down. The New Haven Colony Historical Societv, which had the 



G 

r; 
B 

t 



< 




AND EASTERxX NEW HAVEN COUNTY 151 

few books, had then no facilities which it could offer the city. After some 
search, rooms in the Sheffield Building on Chapel Street, between Orange and 
State, were decided on as most available, and the directors took a ten years' 
lease of them. There the library was opened to the public on the 21st day 
of February, 1887. Its begiiuiing was small, but its prosperity has ever since 
been continuous. There is abundant evidence that New Haven appreciated 
its long delayed free library privilege. 

But it wanted also a building. The days of second-floor libraries, in rented 
rooms, were past. So within two years we find the directors deciding to take 
advantage of the deferred privilege of a $100,000 bond issue to secure the 
building. The Chapel Street quarters, we are told, had become wholly inad- 
equate, I)ecause of the demand for library privileges. There seems to have 
been little serious thought of building, however. That would take time, and 
there was the now abandoned Third Church Building, admirably situated, and 
offering facilities which could be made available at the expenditure of a com- 
paratively small amount of time and money. The property was purchased by 
the city in 1889. The purchase price was $71,000, and good .judges estimated 
that at that time it was worth at least $90,000. It had not, of course, depre- 
ciated any in value when nearly thirty years later the city disposed of it jointly 
to the United States Government and the Second National Bank. The govern- 
ment building and the bank building together take up the space of the old 
library. In this remodeled church building, which, all things considered, made 
a good library building, the New Haven Public Library found a home in 1891, 
and was opened to the public on January 2. 

Meanwhile, two years earlier, the last heir of Philip ilarett had passed 
away, and the tenth of his property was to come to the City of New Haven, 
"to bny books for the Young Men's Institute or any public library which may 
from time to time exist." The state of feeling between the directors of the 
Young Men's Institute and the directors of the young public library was not 
then, as we may imagine, of the best. The former felt that their claim in 
this money was too good to be overlooked, and brought suit to compel the 
City of New Haven to spend this money for their library instead of for the 
public library. The suit was not. however, fought out in the courts. The 
more dignified plan was agreed upon by both parties of submitting it to the 
decision of the Supreme Court of Connecticut. Ex-Governor Charles R. Inger- 
soll argued the case for the Young Men's Institute, and Judge William K. 
Townsend and Burton Mansfield for the City of New Haven. The .judges 
decided unanimously that the newly established free public library was 
entitled to the income of the fund, and the city has so used the money ever 
since. 

The new library was not, however, to bear the Marett or any name except 
that of the City of New Haven. Due credit is given to the donor of the book 
fund by a book plate in every volume bought with it, however. New Haven 
had founded the librarv, late as the action was, and New Haven had provided 



152 A MODERN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN 

the building. When the pureliase and remodeling of the old ehnrch had been 
completed, the library board had $4,456.28 left. It had been struggling along, 
in its old quarters, with an appropriation of about $3,000 a year. AVhen the 
library was first opened, in the rented quarters on Chapel Street, it had 
3,500 books with which to supply the reading needs of a city of 85,000 people. 
It was necessary to send each book around the circuit three times a mouth 
to meet the demand. Extra books were at once purchased from an appropria- 
tion of $3,000, but these were inadequate. It was not until the new quarters 
were .secured and the Jlarett fund made available that the library was able 
to begin to keep up with the legitimate demands of the New Haven public. 

Those demands were never relaxed. The community had waited rather over- 
long, and the people were hungry for good reading. The circulation steadilj; 
and rapidly increased in the new building. It has continued to increase ever 
since. It has developed along other lines than the mere drawing of books. 
It was planned, of course, to open a reading room as soon as the building was 
refitted, but the directors did not anticipate the extensive use of it which im- 
mediately developed. As early as 1893 the directors reported that the de- 
mands of the public in this respect had caused them to make plans for a 
lai'ger reading room or rooms. The next j'ear those plans were carried out, 
and their extent may be inferred from the fact that $3,500 was spent. But 
even this was not long adequate, and a separate periodical room had to be 
opened the next year, what had lieen the church lecture room on the second 
floor being utilized. 

It was in 1894 that the separate children's room was opened, the library 
being among the first of the country in this improvement. This made possible 
another improvement, inaugurated the following year, namely, the open shelf 
plan. At that time all the shelves of the library were thrown open to the 
adult iisers, and they were permitted to select for themselves. The librarians 
reported the plan to be a success. The losses, they said, were small, and easily 
replaced, while the advantages were very material, both in encouraging the 
use of the library in the freest sense, and in the saving of labor for the at- 
tendants. That open shelf plan is continued with success up to the present, 
though the more intricate layout of the stacks in the new building requires 
considerable assistance from those familiar with the library, and some depart- 
ments are of such a nature as to nmke the open shelf plan impracticable. It 
is recognized, however, that there is a great gain from the viewpoint of at- 
tracting the public in the degree of freedom allowed in public access to the 
shelves. 

But the extent of the library had been growing also, and in 1897 more 
room was required. This was secured by the comparatively simple expedient 
of extending a floor from one side gallery across to the other in the main room, 
at the front part of the building. Still more room was needed in 1902, and 
an extensive book stack was built. It was found nece.ssary to add to this three 
years later, and not long after that the librarian was lamenting that the 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 153 

need of a new building was very pi-essiug, and until it came the library would 
be increasingly crippled with its work. There then seemed be a poor pros- 
pect of it. The library board wa.s forced, because the city's financial demands 
were so growing in other directions, to live a sort of hand-to-mouth existence, 
and so many bond issues were demanded that there seemed no hope of getting 
one for a new libraiy building such as New Haven would require. The ilarett 
fund could be used only for the purpose of books. The New Haven Public 
Library was greatly in need of another benefactor. 

II 

Unexpectedly such a benefactor appeared when in October, 1906, the di- 
rectors received a communication from Mrs. ^lary E. Ives. It contained the 
suggestion that the city accpiire the Bristol property, at the northeast corner 
of Elm and Temple streets, and the offer, if the city would do this, to build 
thereon and present to the city "a handsome fireproof building for a public 
library." The letter further said that, if this offer should be found acceptable, 
a plan mutually satisfactory would be adopted, and a sum of money placed in 
the hands of the writer's attorne.y, George D. Watrous, "sufficient to con- 
stiaict a building which shall be an ornament to the city and worthy of the 
site." 

The directors did not delay. Two days later they voted to request the 
Board of Aldermen to provide the site for the building in accordance with 
^Irs. Ives's suggestion; to inform the board that as soon as the present library 
building and the land connected with it could be disposed of, they would refund 
to the city the sum received therefor: that a committee of five be appointed 
to draw up a resolution of thanks to Mrs. Ives, and to present it to her, suit- 
ably engrossed, as a mark of appreciation of her generous gift. 

On Novemlier 17, it was further voted that a copy of Jlrs. Ives's letter be 
tran.smitted to the Board of Aldermen, with a communication representing that 
in the .judgment of the directors the gift should be accepted, the suggested 
site approved and steps at once be taken for the purchase of the property. It 
'was further voted that the sale of the premises then used for a public library 
be attended to as soon as possible, and the proceeds applied to the payment for 
the new site. 

The Board of Aldermen two days later received the communication, granted 
unanimous consent for innnediate action, and unanimously accepted the gift 
on behalf of the city. A committee was appointed to draft resolutions of 
thanks, and the matter of site and sale of the present property was referred 
to another special committee. 

On December 10. the aldermen formally ordered that the Bristol property 
be approved as a site for a new librarj' building under the terms suggested 
by Mrs. Ives, and that the library directors be authorized to sell the old Third 



154 A MODERN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN 

Church Building. Suitable resolutions of thanks to the donor were at the 
same time adopted. 

It seemed clear to the directors that the surroundings of the proposed 
building would ))e greatly improved if the city might own the space clear to 
the grounds of the new county court house at the corner of Elm and Church 
.streets, which was at the time taking form and comeliness. To do this it 
would be necessary to obtain the Trowbridge property, adjoining the Bristol 
property on the east. A committee wa.s appointed for thi.s purpose on 
December 26 of the same year (1906). and reported that this could be 
obtained for $75,000. Accordingly, tliis purchase was recommended by the 
aldermen. The Board of Aldermen, on February 11 of the following year, 
authorized the purchase of the property. 

The committee chosen by Mrs. Ives to secure plans and designs for the 
new building consisted, in addition to her attorney, George D. Watrous, of 
Prof. John F. Weir, Burton Man.sfield, George Dudley Seymour, Former Lieu- 
tenant Governor Samuel F. ]\lerwin, Mayor John P. Studley and Samuel R. 
Avis. Mr. Merwin died before much of the committee's work was done, and 
his place was not filled, ilr. Avis, chairman of the board, was chosen by the 
library directors. Mayor Studley went out of office before the building was 
completed, and was replaced by his successor, Mayor Martin. 

Cass Gilbi-rt of New York, eminently (|ualified as an architect, but chosen 
with especial appropriateness because at that time he was engaged, with 
Frederick Law Olmsted, in a survey of New Haven for a report on city im- 
provement, was appointed to prepare the designs for the new building. He 
could be trusted to make them fully in harmony with the surroundings, present 
and anticipated, of the Green. The plans presented called for a building of 
brick, with marble trimmings, foundation and pillars, harmonizing as com- 
pletely as possible witli tlw United Church on the one side and the County 
Court House on the other. 

This building was completed early in 1911, and dedicated that spring. Its 
marble had come from Vermont and its bricks from North Haven. It did not 
prove to be the showy building that some had expected, but that it harmonizes 
with its surroundings and fits in with the traditional architecture of New Haven' 
no well informed person denies. In construction it is of the highest class in all 
respects, and it is strictly fireproof. In the main l)uilding there are three floors 
and in the stack building six floors. Passing up the broad and easy marble steps 
one enters an imposing lobby which leads to the delivery room, forty-five feet 
square. On the right hand or east side of the delivery room is the reference and 
periodical reading room, a light and altogether attractive place where the library's 
reference works are arranged, fitted with ample tables and seating for patrons. 
The open shelf room, corresponding in size to this, is on the Temple Street side 
of the building. On the second floor are the newspaper reading room on one side, 
and on the other a room of equal size designed a.s an art exhibition room, or for 
a place of public assembly. 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 155 

One room of the greatest importance, of wliit-h tlie lil)rary management and 
New Haven are justly proud, is the children's room. This is a light and airy 
apartment on the ground tloor, with entrance from Teniple Street, designed for 
the special use of the children. It is 99 by 24 feet in size, making it one of the 
largest children's rooms in the country. In this part of the l)uilding are the 
books designed for the exclusive use of the children, and their reading and refer- 
ence rooms. This makes one of the finest and most attractive parts of the build- 
ing, of signal importance because of the inducement which it offers to children 
to use the building. If there is, as every intelligent person believes, potent 
educational virtue in a public library, then the children of New Haven, its citi- 
zens in years to come, have exceptional facilities to fit them for intelligent use- 
fidness. 

The remaining rooms of the liuilding are chiefly for administratiun purposes. 
There is a bindery 44 feet square, a shipping room 25 by 18, staff locker rooms 
and lunch room, a packing room 44 by 27, a cataloguing room 29 by 18, a conven- 
ient librarian's room, a directors' room 18 by 12 and several storerooms. There 
are boiler and engine rooms and a ventilating apparatus in the sub-basement. 

To the regret of all New Haven, the generous donor of this building did not 
live to see its completion. Mrs. Ives died during the winter of 1907-1908. The 
directors passed appropriate resolutions, recording their great sorrow for the 
city's loss of a noble citizen, and their great gratitude to her for having made 
possible at length a suitable and impressive home for the public library. 

Ill 

New Haven lias grown materially since this new building was finished, but 
the use of the lilirary has increased even faster. Ten years ago the number of 
books was about 70,000, and the circulation over 300,000 a year. Now the num- 
ber of books is 125,000, and the circulation over 500,000. The income of the 
library in 1909, including appropriation and incidental receipts, was $20,000. 
It is now about $50,000. 

Before the first Strong School was burned, largely through the efforts of 
Sherman I. Graves, its principal, always an earnest worker for the good of Fair 
Haven, a branch of the library was established in a room of that school. Its 
patronage was liberal from the first, and fully demonstrated the wisdom of its 
establishment. It had awakened Fair Haven to its need of library privileges in 
that section. It was the hope of Mr. Cxraves that when Strong School was rebuilt, 
it would contain, in addition to many other features, ample provisions for a 
library. It early became apparent that this was not to be, and the citizens of 
Fair Haven made other plans. About this time came an overture from the 
Carnegie Corporation of a building if Fair Haven would provide the site. It was 
not pleasing to all concerned to make any part of New Haven the beneficiary of 
the Carnegie Fund, it being against the natural independent spirit of the town. 



156 A MODERN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN 

but after miidi disciissiou and delay the offer was accepted. A site was secured, 
at the cost of $5,000, on Grand Avenue near Ferry Street, and there a building 
approved by the Carnegie Corporation was started in 1917. It brings great relief 
to Fair Haven, for the provisional quarters had long before become uncomfort- 
ably small. There are now four other branches. Tlie largest is in the Congress 
Avenue district. Westville completed a handsome building several years ago, 
and lias now a flourishing library. Near the end of 1916 the Winchester Repeat- 
ing Arms Company offered quarters for a branch library in its district, and there 
is a well used branch in Lowell House. The circulation in these branches for 
1916 was: Congress, 60,157; Fair Haven, 51,226; Westville, 34,749; Lowell 
House, 13,056 ; Dixwell and the otlier branches, 4,093. The present provision for 
this Dixwell branch is only temporary. In this rapidly growing part of the town 
there will be a permanent demand for a library, with its own building. There is 
a substantial movement for tlie purchase of a site for a Carnegie building, and it 
is probable that before long New Haven will have among its branches a second 
Carnegie library. 

The school circulation, partly estimated, was 57,000 for 1916, bringing the 
total considerably over half a million for that year. It has shown a retarding 
of i)icrease since, for many persons have had other things to busy them than read- 
ing. The present number of card holders is not far from 38,000, and the number 
increases at the rate of about 12,000 a year. 

Fiction still has a good lead in the classes of books demanded, though it has 
in the aggregate fairly a majority of the vote. In the Lowell House library, 
where all the readers are cliildren. except for the few foreign language books read 
by adults, literature and miscellany is a close second to fiction, and half as many 
books on sociology and education are i-ead. The juvenile circulation in the main 
library and in the branches averages about half the adult, except in the Congress 
branch (an addition to Lowell House just mentioned), where it is double the 
adult. At Fair Haven, twice as many books of travel were read by adults as at 
Congress. In the main libran' the books most in demand by adults, next to 
fiction, were foreign books, literature and miscellany, the useful arts, and the fine 
arts, including recreation. At Fair Haven and Westville there was a great 
demand for bound volumes of the magazines. Books on sociology, including 
education, had a great demand at the main library, but a much greater propor- 
tional demand at Congress and Lowell House. 

A recent development of the library .service has been the opening of summer 
branches in July and August in four schoolrooms, Dante, Scranton Street, LoveU 
and Ivy. They are open twice a week in the afternoons. They have been used 
mostly by the children, though adult books have been included. It was not the 
original intention, but it was found that by affording an opportunity to the 
children to come to the schoolhouses in summer for reading, the library might 
serve a valuable purpose. 

The annual expense of maintaining tlie library is now approximately $50,000. 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 157 

Of this about $40,000 comes from tlie city appropriation, over $2,000 from fines 
and fees, and the balance from a number of minor sources. The Marett Fund 
for the purchase of books is an account by itself, and provides about $3,250 a 
year. There is a considerable annual bulk of accessions fi-om gifts of books, 
periodicals and newspapers. 



CHAPTER XVIII 
THE CIVIC DEVELOPMENT 

ORIGIN AND WORK OF THE CIVIC FEDERATION — OLD AND NEW HISTORY OP THE CHAM- 
BER OF COMMERCE — SOME CONTRIBUTORY ORGANIZATIONS 

I 

It has appeared from various facts tciuched iijion in the foregoing pages that 
somewhere about the dawning of the twentieth century New Haven began to have 
an awakening to its possil)ilities, its power and its responsibility, and consciously 
to grapple with the task revealed. It was not without some machinery of organi- 
zation that this was brought about. A community made up of able, alert, consci- 
entious individuals bad fallen into the fault of remaining too individualistic, 
and developing little of effectual harmonious effort. It had some organizations 
which it was not using, it needed others — or at least there were those who thought 
it did. 

Mention has been made of such organizations, of which the Civic Federation 
and the Chamber (if Commerce are examples. The former was the growtli of the 
needs of the time ; the latter was an old and partly dormant organization, whose 
functions had been conceived to be limited by the "customary duties of such 
organizations." Because the Civic Federation came first into effectual operation 
for the real advancement of New Haven, as well as because it was and is dis- 
tinctly civic ill its plan, it merits mention first in the order. It was the best and 
in some senses the first expression of the desire of progressive New Haven men 
to work together and unite others, societies and individuals, for the betterment 
of New Haven. There were so many things to do which, being everybody's busi- 
ness had become nobody's business that some tangible form of society was neces- 
sary as a workintr medium. The Civic Federation has proved that society. 

The village improvement society, common in New England and elsewhere, 
probal)ly furnished the germ of the idea. The things to be done were plain 
enough. New Haven needed better streets, better sidewalks, better housing condi- 
tions. It needed some attention to building lines, better sanitary regulations. 
Some things needed to l^e done for the improvement of the public health which 
somebody must agitate as a preparation for the work of the Board of Health. 
Conditions of which these are examples sounded the call for a society civic, not 
commercial, aiming for the moral and not alone for the material improvement of 

158 




CHAMBER OF COMMERCE BUILDIX(i. NEW HAVEX 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 159 

New Haven. The eall liad been answered before this, but not in a united way. 
The city liad a number of civie societies, caeli working for its local end, and in a 
neighborhood way. AYlien the need for .some union of action became too 
apparent to be disregarded, they were loosely joined in a federation called The 
Associated Civic Societies of New Haven. And at ordinary times each proceeded 
to operate in its little circle. The nature of these societies was various. Some 
were civie, some were for business, others were charitable or religious, still others 
were of the nature of labor organizations. They were relics of the days of New 
Haven's rural constitution. 

And New Haven had become cosmopolitan, urban ; it had grown into a sense 
of great responsibilities and the need of united action. There were many pro- 
gressive New Haveners who realized that the time had come for the making of 
better macliinery. They agitated the matter of forming an effective and wieldy 
civic body. They called a meeting for sucli an end. This was on JIareh 20, 1908, 
at tlie Graduates' Club. Unfortunately, only three citizens thought well enough 
of the matter to respond, but fortunately they were citizens worth while and un- 
terrified by the smallness of their number. They were the Rev. Artemas J. 
Haynes, the brilliant and beloved pastor of the United Church from 1901 to 1908, 
who within five months was to meet a mysterious and tragic death in a Cape Cod 
lake ; Prof. Charles F. Kent, who was to be the first president of the new organi- 
zation, and Charles S. DeForest. They made a beginning. Other meetings, bet- 
ter attended, followed. The result was the organization of The Associated Civic 
Societies of New Haven into the Civie Federation of New Haven. 

The societies thus merged were not rudely deprived of their identity, how- 
ever. There was formed, as a sort of holding body, the Federated Council of One 
Hundred, presumably to represent in a way the various societies which had been 
merged. This council preserved a sort of existence for about three years. It was 
composed of representative citizens, who did good work and advertised the new 
organization considerably. It has been called, in reference to that time, "the 
right arm of the federation." Having served its purpose, it was "discharged 
with thanks" when the federation adopted its constitution of 1912, for no men- 
tion of it was made in that document. 

Profes.sor Kent, who was very active in the formation of the society, was made 
its first president. He was followed by Dean Henry Wade Rogers, then of the 
Yale Law school. He was followed for two years by Walter Camp, and for the 
past five years Dr. Charles J. Bartlett of the Medical school has most efficiently 
led the work. 

It was evident when the Civic Federation was formed that the time had come 
in New Haven for the employment of a permanent, paid executive secretary to 
secure results. The choice fell on Robert A. Crosby, and for the following five 
or six years he was the constant, consistent co-ordinator of all the activities of 
the federation. He had the highest enthusiasm for its possibilities, and under 
his effort it acquired an impetus which has drawn to it many of the most earnest 
citizens, and held their interest and support to the end of effective service. In 



160 A MODERN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN 

connection with his service for the federation, both :Mr. and ]\Irs. Crosby devoted 
themselves to Lowell House, a social settlement peculiar to New Haven, and their 
influence there will long be remembered. Many were the interests and circles in 
New Haven which sincerely regretted Mr. and Mrs. Crosby's departure for a 
larger field in New York in 1915. 

It was about 1910 that the federation began so to find itself as to undertake 
reforms of city-wide magnitude, and its showing in the seven or eight years fol- 
lowing was one which abundantly justified the labor of its formation and nurture. 
One of the first prol)loms of this class which it attacked was that of building lines 
in New Haven. Legal experts, such as the federation has always been able to 
command among its membership, had called attention to conditions which were 
astounding in their discouragement of anything like central symmetry of streets 
and uniformity of street lines. New Haven had, like Topsy, ".just growed," and 
shocking had become its abnormalities. Central streets showed a lack of definite- 
ness in their building lines which afforded the' widest range of exercise of the 
greed of those who were so unpatriotic as to crowd out in front of others, the 
true location of even the street lines was very uncertain, in some cases, and the 
widening of streets or the creation of uniformity in fronts or lines seemed out 
of the question. This was to be expected, perhaps, in a city whose roots of con- 
fusion went back to the indefinite old surveys of 1640. But it was found that in 
streets whose carving out of farm lots had taken place within two decades, the 
conditions were getting almost as bad. 

One of the first public actions, then, of the newly organized Federated Coun- 
cil of One Hundred was to appoint a committee consisting of John K. Beach and 
George D. Watrous, attorneys, to investigate this subject of street and building 
lines, and to return some recommendation. That committee reported early in 
1909, and its report was published in September of the same year. It embodied 
a l)rief general statement of the principles of establishment of building lines, as 
defined by the courts of Connecticut. The basic trouble with the situation in 
New Haven, the committee found, was that a great many of the supposed build- 
ing lines had not been established in accordance with the fundamental require- 
ments of notice and assessment of benefits and damages. Others had failed to 
comply with the mode of procedure required by the city charter. The only way 
to find out whether a certain building line was or was not valid was to look up 
the records of its establishment — if these could be found — and discover whether 
or not its creators had complied with the fundamental law and with the charter. 
On this subject in general the report .said : 

"It is said that most, if not all, of the building lines adopted since the early 
'70s have been properly established, and that those adopted prior to that time 
are of doubtful validity. If this is true it would follow that the doubt in ques- 
tion matches precisely to those building lines which are now the most important." 

The report then proceeded to point out the chief points on which the impor- 
tance of street and building lines depend, and made five recommendations: 
That a systematic examination of the records of the establishment of building 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 161 

Hues in the priucipal business and residence streets be made; that invalid or 
doubtful lines be re-established by due process of law; that new building lines, 
looking to the future, be established in certain streets ; that emphasis be placed 
on the recent opinion of the corporation counsel, a copy of which was annexed 
to the report, to the end of deterring the aldermen from making exceptions to 
established building lines; that if that should fail, such legal or other steps as 
might be necessary be taken to prevent further abuse in the matter of building 
lines. 

The opinion referred to was a plain statement of the law, and of the power 
of the city in the restriction of building lines. 

The Buildings, Streets and Shade Trees Committee of the federation exam- 
ined the report and discussed the matter in many meetings. Realizing its 
importance and magnitude, they arranged for joint sessions with the Town 
and City Improvements Committee of the Chamber of Commerce. It was agreed 
to follow out as far as possible the suggestions of the report, and to bring the 
whole matter as fully as possible to the attention of the citizens of New Haven. 
It cannot be said that this resulted in immediate improvement of the condition 
of building and street lines. Nor can it be said that they are what they should 
be even now. The mistakes of two and three-quarters centuries are not corrected 
in a decade. But it has been the work of the federation to present the facts. 
The facts have set some of the people to thinking, and a start has been made. New 
Haven has in this achievement a promise that it will do better in building lines, 
and the results already show on the newer streets. Some day it may. at great 
expense, undo some of the bad work in the central streets. 

Meanwhile, this same committee had undertaken to enlighten New Haven 
as to another evil, whose remedy must come from without. New Haven's post- 
ofBee, outwardly behind the times, was inwardly a menace to the health and 
lives of the half a hundred or more workers within, a plant from which good 
work in so important a task as the distribution of the incoming, and the accurate 
despatch of the outgoing mail ought not to be expected. It was so crowded 
as to hamper the workers. The ventilation was inadequate. The rooms were 
lacking in proper cleanliness and were effectual promoters of disease. If the 
city could not have a new building — and the possibility seemed at that time 
remote — it should have more room and better arrangement, at least better 
sanitary conditions, on the old site. It did not take long to find out these facts. 
They were promptly published in a report issued in January, 1910. 'it was 
a fair and effective presentation of "The New Haven Postoffice Building 
Problem." The effect of it was not as slow in coming as might perhaps have 
been expected. Washington promised a new building— after further persua.sion 
by citizens in and out of the federation. Meanwhile, it arranged for immediate 
relief in the shape of some added "wings" to the already unshapely brown 
stone building. But the effect of more room was fairly well attained, and there 
was some cleaning up inside. In overdue time the new building itself has come, 
though its completion has been a tediously slow process, and its occupancy is 

Vol. I 1 1 



162 A MODERN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN 

still delayed. It is uot too much to claim for the federation that in the realiza- 
tion of this consummation it has materially helped. 

A reform of another sort, in process at the same time, was being attempted 
by the Federated Council of One Hundred, working in conjunction with the 
New Haven Pastors' Union. It illustrated how the work of this society was 
bound to reach beyond New Haven. The Pastors' Union had taken the lead 
in the discovery that the government of New Haven County, and the manage- 
ment of its affairs, were not such as to meet the approval of sensible and 
moral citizens. The pastors believed this a matter in which the voice of the 
laymen should be heard, and had laid the facts before the representative citizens 
included in the Council of One Hundred. The result was a "Communication 
from the New Haven Civic Federation's Council of One Hundred and the New 
Haven Pastors' Union Concerning the Government of New Haven County," 
issued in September, 1910. It revealed many things which might not be expected 
to meet the approval of good citizens, in the manner of administering the affairs 
of New Haven County. Some of them were news to a good many citizens, though 
they had to admit that they were, as voters in the county, in part responsible 
for them. It cannot be said that there was any immediate revolution in county 
affairs as a result of this report. But there have not been lacking, in the years 
since, evidences that the people of New Haven County were set to thinking by 
its statements. Some other deliverances with which the federation has since 
followed it have served to keep the matter in the public mind, and some valuable 
changes in county processes are pending, as a result, it may confidently be said, 
of the agitation. 

One specific presentation, immediately following in November, 1910, was the 
"Report on County Affairs by the Special Commission of the Council of One 
Hundred." This touched on certain phases of New Haven County's .system 
of business and political management more definitely than did the previous 
document. It was the attempt to present, as fairly and free from animus as 
possible, county conditions as they were. What was presented, to be sure, was 
bound to be taken by certain politicians, particularly the county commissioners 
and their creators, as personal, but the investigators were unconcerned about 
that. The effect of the report was to show in a clear light the lack of effective- 
ness and economy in New Haven's present county system, and to suggest what 
the citizens ought to do about improving it. As has been said, they are thinking 
about the matter. 

The following January, as a result of some very careful work by the Tene- 
ment House Committee, of which Rev. J. Edward Newton was chairman, an 
excellent report on "Improved Housing for Wage Earners" wa.s presented. 
The survey on which this was based had been made by skilled investigators, who 
went through over one thousand New Haven apartments. It embodied some 
very specific recommendations for the improvement of the undesirable conditions 
found, several of which have since been worked out not only in prngi-e.ssive local 
ordinances but in state laws. 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 163 

In April, 1912, the Committee ou Buildings, Streets and Shade Trees shaped 
some careful and expert observations and findings into a report on ' ' The Plant- 
ing and Care of Street and Highway Trees." It was a timely aud needed 
remuider to those responsible for the trees of New Haven. The elms, once the 
city's pride, had been suffered to fall victims, in great measure, to their myriad 
enemies. The congestion in the city's center was crowding out trees. New 
Haven needed tree protection in its administration. It is not too much to 
credit the move of the Civic Federation largely with the appointment of a city 
forester and the adoption of a consistent and scientific plan for the care of trees 
and the reforestration of the city, which already shows tangible results. 

New Haven owes a great deal to the federation for its vigorous work in the 
elimination of the mosciuito and fly pest in its borders. The marshes along 
"West River and around Mill River and Morris Cove had for generations been 
the source of a plentiful supply of mosquitoes, while the whole city abounded 
in fly breeding places. The federation ably seconded the work of the Board 
of Health, in conjunction with the nation-wide campaign against the insect 
pests. ]\Ineh was done to enlighten the people by a report on "Mosquito Con- 
trol" published in March, 1913. Soon after this the State of Connecticut took 
lip a broad work of mosquito combat. All in all, the result has been a gradual 
j-eduction of the mosquito and fly menace, along with a sure education of the 
people, which will have the result of keeping it down. In this result the fed- 
eration has been, so far as New Haven is concerned, a pioneer. 

More specific and technical was an attempt at civic betterment suggested 
in "A Survey of a New Haven District," a document issued by the federation 
in April, 1913. It was by expert investigators, and included a presentation 
of the social, moral and economic phases of the life of the people in a repre- 
sentative section of the city. It was largely of value to the workers of the 
federation, but it must have been highly suggestive to a great many New Haven 
people who read it, of ways in which they could help their eity. It is illustrative 
of the thoroughness of the work which some of the departments of the federation 
have sought to do. 

Another report on "Housing Conditions in New Haven" followed the pre- 
liminary one, the latter in October, 1913. It had been prepared by Carl Arono- 
vici, director of the Bureau of Social Research of New England, for the section 
on Tenement House Conditions. It was technical, Irat plain. Its facts were 
tabulated. The conditions found were revealed by figures, and in some cases 
by illustrations. It should be said, however, that this report was not made 
public until its findings had been laid before the proper authorities, thus avoid- 
ing the advertising without purpose of "New Haven's shame," as the committee 
expressed it. And in the year which the committee held the report before 
publishing it, three of its principal recommendations were adopted : A tenement 
house inspector was appointed under the Health Board; a state housing asso- 
ciation was formed : amendments to the laws and ordinances were secured. 

To the report, as published, were appended the Connecticut statutes con- 



164 A MODERN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN 

ceruing tenement houses, as amended in 1913; a statement of New Haven's health 
officer "as to the report of the first year of tenement house inspection; and a 
presentation of the plans of the Improved Housing Association of New Haven, 
with a sketch of the first houses which it was building under them. It appears 
to have been a commendable showing of immediate results of an important 

survey. 

'•Living Conditions Among Negroes in the Ninth Ward, New Haven" was 
a thesis written in his course by Rev. Charles W. Burton, Yale School of 
Religion, 1913. It was the result of some thorough, systematic, very valuable 
study, and though conducted independently of the federation, that organization 
did New Haven a great service by publishing it. Citizens thoroughly conversant 
with conditions among his race in New Haven have repeatedly praised this 
presentation of their ease by Mr. Burton, who is now a successful pastor in 
Macon, Ga. 

One of the most thorough pieces of work done by any department of the 
federation was ''A Study of the Problem of Girl Delinquency in New Haven," 
by the Committee on Social and Industrial Conditions, of which the Rev. Robert 
C. Denison was chairman. The work, of t-ourse, was done by a trained investi- 
gator under direction and employment of the committee. With facts, with 
figures, with the most illuminating charts, it presented some very fundamental 
truths as to a condition of which New Haven needed to know. While no alarmist 
document, it did warn New Haven of certain steps it must take if it would arrest 
a very serious tendency among its younger generation, and gave a basis for 
some very valuable work, some of which, there is reason to believe, has since 
been started. The report was printed in March. 1915. In summing up. Miss 
Mabel A. Wiley, the investigator, made certain specific recommendations, most 
of which concerned the improvement of court methods in dealing with the delin- 
quent girl, and of the after care of the delinquent following the court stage. 
The most important of these were a special court for the trying of these cases, 
and a detention home for girls. These have since been adequately covei'ed by 
the establishment of the Children's Building at 291 Orange Street. 

For it may readily be granted that it was an outgrowth of the revelations 
of this report, though of course other causes contributed, that there was pre- 
sented to New Haven, in the spring of 1917, this completed Children's Building. 
It was a remodeled private residence, the gift to the city of Mrs. Percy T. Walden 
and her sister. Mrs. Frank D. Berrien. Hei-e, in a building admirably equipped 
for tlie service, juvenile delinquents of both sexes, without being so labeled, are 
detained and treated in the most effective way for what ails them. Here the 
Children's Court is held, and disciplinary schools for both boys and girls are 
conducted. It is one of the most effective agencies for the meeting of its juvenile 
delinquency problems possessed by any city of New Haven's size anywhere. In 
effect it is a home, inviting and humanly attractive, and those who pass under 
its influence are permanently helped without realizing that they have been 
under restraint. 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COT-NTY Ifio 

The Civic Federation of New Haven takes justifiable pride in one of its latest 
achievements, the survey of the New Haven County Jail. This was nndertaken 
in 1916, also for the section on Social and Industrial Conditions. The com- 
mittee actually doing the work consisted of Dr. John E. Lane, chairman; 
IMrs. Charles J. Bartlett, Clarence W. Bronson, Mrs. Roliert A. Croshy and John 
Phillips Street. Thei-e was an accompanying supplementary report on the same 
subject by two experts, 0. F. Lewis, Ph. D., general secretary of the Prison 
Association of New York, and Hastings H. Hart, LL. D., director of the Child 
Helping Department, Russell Sage Foundation. 

Few county jails are anything like ideal institutions; New Haven's was at 
that time very much the opposite. There was no attempt to gloss over its glaring 
defects. They were shown up as they were. The findings of both the local 
committee and the experts condemned the jail in dispassionate but unsparing 
terms as constitutionally impossible. There was not so much a suggestion of 
blame for the management as there was a plain showing to the people of the 
county of their duty radically to change a system and its management, and as 
soon as might be to reconstruct their jail on an entirely different plan. The 
outcome was the appointment, by the i-epresentatives of the county in the General 
Assembly of 1917, of a commission to investigate further the jail conditions, 
with a view to suggesting a material change. The presentation of the report 
was too overwhelming to be disregarded. There is good prospect that in results 
this will be one of the most valuable of the services of the federation. 

Three documents were published by the federation in 1917, each the valuable 
record of constructive work. The first was another "Health Survey of New 
Haven," the second a "Voters' Bulletin" and the third a timely treatise on 
the "Servant Problem." 

Such are a few of the ajiparent fi'uits of the Civic Federation of New 
Haven in something less than a decade of its career, with particular attention 
to those phases upon which its publi.shed documents have made report. They 
fail, of course, to show much of the less conspicuous but hardly less valuable of 
the constant service of this effectual organization of the earnest, forward-looking 
men and women of New Haven. The federation functions regularly through 
sections of Sanitation, Recreation, Education, Legislation, Housing, Municipal 
Research, Social and Lidustrial Conditions, Household Economics, Buildings, 
Streets and Shade Trees, Finance,^ ilembership. Protection of IMinors, Lectures 
and Popular Amusements, Each section is well officered and has a good working 
committee, and its work each year becomes more practical and effectual. The 
present officers are: 

President— Charles J. Bartlett. M. D. 
First Vice Pi'esident — Thomas W» Farnam. 
Second Vice President — Wilson H. Lee. 
Third Vice President— Patrick F. O'Meara. 
Treasurer and Acting SecTctary— Donald A. Adams. 



166 



A MODERN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN 



Members at Large— Mrs. Percy T. Walden, Charles F. Kent, Mrs. John C. 
Sehwali, Charles S. DeForest, Miss Lina M. Phipps. 

Section ehaii-men. in the order of sections given above— Heni-y B. Ferris, E. 
nermann Arnold. JI. D., ilrs. Percy T. Walden. Harry W. Asher, ]\[rs. Henry 
Wade Rogers. Eliot Watroiis, Rev. Robert C. Denison. Mrs. Wilder Tileston, 
Walter 0. Filley, Victor M. Tyler, Livingston W. Cleaveland, Frank A. Corbiii, 
Frederick J. Kingsbury. 

II 

The New Haven Chamber of Commerce makes the undisputed claim to be, 
with not more than one or two exceptions, the oldest organization of its kind in 
the country. It was on the evening of April 7, 1794. so the record runs, that it 
was organized. .Just where that meeting was held the scribe neglected to note. 
The meetings for tiie first few years seem to have been occasional — being, aside 
from the stated annual meeting, no doubt at the call of the president. There 
were at least a few of the faithful, for wc are told that during the first twenty 
years of its e.xi.stence "stated and special meetings were frequently held, and 
only once — in 1801 — was there a (juorum lacking at an annual meeting." How- 
ever, the native hue of resolution with which the organization was launched in 
1794 must have paled a little, for the scribe relates that "from 1821, at which 
time ;\lr. Gilbert Totten was elected president and Timothy Dwight secretary, 
there was a revival of interest, and during the next eighteen years annual meet- 
ings w-cre held quite regularly." This may not be interpreted as tremendously 
productive work, even during the yeai's of the revival. There was a boom before 
the end of the period, for at the ad.journed annual meeting held April 1, 1835, 
twenty-five candidates were elected to membership. Among the numlier are men- 
tioned Thomas R. Trowbridge, Harry Prescott and Edwin ilarble. At the next 
annual meeting Harry Prescott was elected secretary, succeeding Leonard A. Dag- 
gett, who had he'd the ofQce for ten years. "Sir. Daggett, we are told, began the 
record of that meeting by giving the list of the newly elected members, and t^ien 
added: "What was done after this I leave to my worthy sixccessor to record." 
";\Ir. Prescott." writes the narrator, "proved himself to be indeed a 'worthy suc- 
cessor.' For forty-eight years lie faitlifully served the cband)ei' as keeper of its 
records. ' " 

But the secretary's faithfulness was not shared by all the mendiers. Even 
his records show that after 1839 there was a period of sad falling off in interest. 
For twelve yeni-s in succession, it appears, the ainiual meetings were legally 
warned, Init no (|unrum appeared to transact the business. The secretary 
remained at his post through it all. And after each of these lamentable failures 
he would dispassionately record, following the date in each case: "Annual meet- 
ing warned, lint only the secretary being present, the meeting adjourned. H. Pres- 
cott. .secretary." 

This lone fidelity had its fruits in time. On Tuesday evening. ^lay 14. 1872. 
he was able tn I'ccord a re il me 'ting. Jlembers and others in favor of a reoro'ani- 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 167 

zatioii of the chamber met at the mayor's otifiee — Henry G. Lewis being nia\()r at 
that time. The mayor. Prof. Johnson T. Piatt, Edwin 8. Wheeler and the secre- 
tary are mentioned as the reorganization committee. They proceeded to notify 
all members and request their presence at the meeting to lie held at the sanu- jilaee 
on the following Friday evening. The work of the committee is said to have 
been prompt, and we have proof that it was successful in the fact that at a special 
meeting held the following day at the office of Atwater, Wheeler & Company 
fifty-seven of "our best citizens" were elected to membership. And still another 
special meeting came the next day at the Yale National Bank, which accepted 
eleven more returning to the fold. 

Some serious happenings had taken place in the lapse of annual meetings, 
as the following preamble and resolution, adopted at the adjourned meet- 
ing, held on Friday evening. May 7, attests : 

"Whereas, vacancies having occurred since the last annual election, by the 
death of the president, vice president and treasurer, and it being necessary 
and important that said offices should be filled, therefore, 

"Resolved, that this meeting do now proceed to the choice of a president, to 
fill the vacancy caused by the death of Ezra Hotchkiss, Esq., of a vice president, 
to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Enos A. Prescott, Esq., and of a 
treasurer, to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Henry Hotchkiss, Esq." 

The meeting then proceeded to elect as president, Thomas R. Trowbridge; 
as first vice president, James E. English ; as second vice president, Johnson T. 
Piatt ; as recording secretary, Harry Prescott : as corresponding secretary, Edwin 
S. Wheeler; as treasurer. Wilbur F. Day. 

"At this meeting, besides the newcomers" — this nnist be from the faithful 
Secretary Prescott "s reliable record — "there were some who, like Mr. Trow- 
bridge and Mr. Prescott, had been members of the chamber 'in the old days 
before the war.' " But a later historian, probably John Currier Gallagher, 
who was secretary for eighteen years previous to March 27, 1909, and who 
collected the scattering records of those earlier years, added: "Of this num- 
ber but one is now living. Mr. Edwin Marble is the only one of the 450 members 
of the chamber who can date his membership previous to the reorganization in 
1872." This was written about 1909. 

On the day following that reorganization in 1872, which day was May 15, 
the chamber, at a special meeting, accepted a resolution incorporating "The 
Chamber of Commerce of New Haven." This was promptly passed by the 
General Assembly and approved by the governor — he was Marshall Jewell of 
Hartford— on June 11. At the meeting of May 15 a revision of the old "bye- 
laws" was adopted and a committee was appointed to procure the corporate seal 
now in use. 

The modei'n life of the Chamber of Commerce substantially dates from that 
time. The organization then came into some conception of what such a body 
of men can do for a city like New Haven. There was much to the credit of 
the chamber in the vears from 1872 to 1909, though the record of some of 



168 



A MODERN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN 



it was not fully kept. Mr. Gallagher resi-ued some of the salieut features of 
the chamber's work in that period. Of it he says modestly : 

"The chamber has contributed its share of work in the establishment of 
the United States AVeather Signal Station here; in the freeing and rebuilding 
of Tomlinson's bridge; in the improvement of the harbor; in the relief of the 
yellow fever sufferers in the South; in devising the plan for permanent street 
pavements ; in the annexation of East Haven ; in the consolidation of our munici- 
pal governments; in the establishment of our city park system, and in the 
organization of the Naval Militia." 

Of these years much more might be written. They were years of earnest 
work; they were productive years. The chamber was led by good men. Such 
representative citizens of New Haven as Wilson H. Lee, Hon. Rollin S. Wood- 
ruff and Gen. Edward E. Bradley— to mention a few out of many— were its 
presidents. But the real awakening had not come to New Haven, and the 
chamber, though it helped toward it, did not serve as a rude disturber of New 
Haven's conservatism. The spirit which prevailed is well illustrated in the last 
decade of the period. New Haven was doing pretty well, was progressing and 
prospering, they said ; and they spoke the truth. There was nobody to answer 
in any aggressive way the question, why start anything? 

But there were those, especially in the opening yeai'S of the century, who 
fretted at the chamber's lack of aggressiveness. It might, they insisted, serve 
as a mighty welder and wielder of the united influence of the men of New 
Haven. It might be the agency through which they could do great things. 
Subsequent events have shown that they were right. 

Perhaps it was not with the clear thought of a new era in mind that the 
chamber, on March 28, 1909, elected Colonel Isaac M. Ullman president. He wa.s 
known as a leader in New Haven politics. He had demonstrated his ability to 
marshal men who would be marshaled, within his own party lines. But some 
questioned, though they kept their questionings largely to themselves, whether 
he was qualified to unite such a force of positive men, worth while, as New 
Haven ought to furnish to make its Chamber of Commerce a constructive force 
for the highest good of the city. 

But looking back now to that election of officers in March, 1909, New Haven 
has to accord to it the standing of another organization of the chamber. It 
marked a new era in its work, and a new era for New Haven. Along with 
Colonel Ullman were elected Hon. Eli Whitney as first vice president; George 
H. Scranton, second vice president ; Charles E. Julin, secretary ; Charles W. 
Scrantoii, treasurer; John Currier Gallagher, George P. Burgess, James Hill- 
house, Charles S. DeForest, W. Perry Curtiss, directors. The first named, 
Mr. Gallagher, had been the secretary for eighteen years previous, and was 
one of the most popular and respected citizens of New Haven. In all, it was 
a strong body of citizens, well qualified to undertake the new task to which 
they were called. The appointment of Mr. Julin was the beginning of the 
employment of a paid secretary to give practically all his time to the work of 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY ]6!) 

the (.-hamber. He has been its secTetary ever since, and though sometimes the 
credit for achievement is given by tlie nudiseerning to others in more conspicuous 
office, those who know accord liiiii much of the praise. 

It was a distinctly go-forward plan which Colonel Ullnian at once set in 
motion. The first task, naturally, was to get the men. The chamber then had 
a membership of a little over 500. An aggressive campaign, inaugurated at 
once, raised it in two years to more than 1,200. In 1917 it had grown to upwards 
of 1,400, and was still rising. Long before this the chamber had affiliated with 
itself, and counted in its membership, the Business Men's Association and the 
Publicity Club. It had the men, and the strength of the union was such as 
to make sure that others would come as fast as might be. It has for almost 
a decade been the proper thing- to belong to the Chamber of Commerce. 

The membership held partly Itecause it was set at work. There were things 
to be done, and the leaders were wise enough to know that an organization, 
like a man, grows by exercise. The aim of most chambers of commerce, merely 
to make the city bigger, was overlooked. The big task the New Haven chamber 
made its own was to make New Haven a better city in the truest ways. Per- 
haps the scope of the work undertaken may fairly be indicated by a list of 
the committees through which, a few years later, the chamber was operating: 
Ways and Means, Manufacturers, New Enterprise, State and Local Legislation, 
Public Schools and Education, Municipal Affairs, Railroads and Transporta- 
tion, Town and City Improvements, Harbor, Trade School, National Legislation, 
Membership, Real Estate, Civic, Sanitation and Public Health, Banquet, 
Bi-Weekly Luncheon, Public Recreation, International Arbitration, Co-operation 
with Scientific School, Fire Prevention and Agricultural Extension. It mu.st 
seem that almost everything possible to the ambition of a chamber of commerce 
would come naturally within the province of one or more of this list of com- 
mittees. The policy of keeping the same chairman for each committee from 
year to year has been followed, so that the most active workers of the chamber 
have in a sense become experts in their lines of endeavor. 

The period since then has been a period of accomplishment. Perhaps New 
Haven was readier to respond than at any previous time, but no credit may be 
subtracted from unitecl, consistent, hard and earnest work. It seems like boast- 
ing to mention even a few of the things which the Chamber of Commerce has 
achieved within less than a decade past, but it is a mere relation of facts. 

One of the most significant actions, itself a matter of preparation and effi- 
ciency, has been the effort to unite some of New Haven's scattered organizations 
under one head. The men of New Haven have at times been painfully organized. 
At least two or three organizations would be seeking to do the same thing at 
the same time. It was the work of the new Chamber of Commerce to make a 
beginning in simplifying New Haven organizations, at least in its own depart- 
ment. The New Haven Business Men's Association was a body of the familiar 
type for the serving of some interests peculiar to the merchants and tradesmen 
of New Haven as distinct from the manufacturers. The governors of the cham- 



170 A MODERN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN 

licr perceived, liowever, that they had much iu eommou, aud diplomatically 
brought about a coalition. In the same maimer an alliance was formed with 
the Publicity Club, an association of the younger luisiness and professional and 
advertising men with the avowed mission of "boosting New Haven." The 
three societies, though pursuing their separate activities and doing a distinct 
work, now form together the New Haven Chamber of Commerce, and weld together 
the strength of tlie men as is done in very few cities of the size of New Haven. 

Some of the results which this united force has achieved in the city within 
the past six or seven years have been initiated by one branch, some by another, 
some by all three working together. The end of getting things done has been 
set above pride or individual credit. And the list is an imposing one. The 
merest mention must suffice. 

The chamber unified and made dynamic New Haven's demand for a new 
federal Iniilding and postoffice. The results of that demand appear, albeit slowly. 
The chamber promoted the establislunent of the trade school, and as a result 
of a wisely directed effort, the city has a trade school admirably adapted to its 
needs, and withal one of the best schools of the sort in the country. The 
chamber was the force which the projectors of the New Haven Manufacturers' 
Exhibit, to be more particularly mentioned later, were able to use for the working 
out of their idea. 

"When those interested in helping the factoiy workers of the city to organize 
for their protection against tuberculosis, by means of an employees' anti-tuber- 
culosis association, sought to effect their purpose, the chamber was the means 
which they found ready. It might have been possible for New Haven to get 
its long-needed isolation hospital some day without the Chamber of Commerce, 
but that organization was able to help in changing the long struggle to a realiza- 
tion of the institution. The chamber has aided in anti-ice famine work, collected 
funds for tlie sufferers from the Salem fire, has repeatedly led "in organizing Red 
Cross campaigns, and in relief funds for the Belgian and other causes. 

The chamber helped in securing home rule legislation for New Haven. It 
helped achieve a modern fire-alarm system. It took up, as the modern suc- 
cessor of James Hillhouse the elder, the work of reforesting New Haven. It 
promoted the teachers' pension legislation. It lias worked for better pavements, 
for the use of schoolhouse auditoriums as neighliorhood centers and for public 
and neighborhood meetings. It has secured the placement of more and better 
buoys in the harbor. 

It has promoted the strengthening and improvement of the commercial course 
at the New Haven High School. It started the New Haven County Farm Bureau 
Association, whose benefits in more efficient farms and better farm life are 
already of marked evidence and high promise. It inaugurated the "Buy in 
New Haven" movement. 

These are some of the achievements of the period of the chamber's awakening. 
As an examiile of tlie variety and extent of the work it is doing now, it may 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 171 

profit to mention some of its activities in 1916 and 1917, as reported 1)y its 
secretary : 

Secured favorable action by tlie Board of Aldermen to extend the nuniicipal 
dock, equip it with loading and unloading hoists, lay steam and electric railroad 
connections and deejien vessel berths. 

Worked for the new railroad passenger station of the New York, New Haven 
& Hartford Railroad, and promoted the underwriting of the bond issue by 
the company to pay for it. 

Worked to secure a trolley shelter for transfer of passengers between rail- 
road and trolley lines at the new station. 

Aided the state in the military census enumeration, and aided the Federal 
Government in securing information on industrial interests as a part of the 
preparedness work. 

Aided in home guard recruiting. 

Organized the Junior Fire Prevention League in the schools; gave prizes 
for encouragement of study by pupils in schools along that line; secured enact- 
ment of law to prohibit the building of dangerous fire hazards in frame tenement 
structures. 

Assisted in plans to relieve freight congestion in the interests of both the 
railroad and steamboat companies on one hand and the New Haven public on 
the other. 

Represented the city's bu.siness interests before the Intei-state Commerce 
Commission with regard to Long Island Sound steamboat matters. 

Brought to New Haven exhibits of wares that could be made or are made 
in New Haven from foreign markets, to enable manufacturers to study possible 
extension of their own business. 

Aided the navy department to secure accurate detailed information about 
New Haven's industries both for peace orders and for possible preparedness 
program. 

Through its committee on public health has been studying the vexatious 
sewage disposal problem and urging remedial action by the Board of Aldermen. 
The same committee secured the order for a public convenience station. It is 
also at work on a study of preventive measures in regard to the fly nuisance. 

Brought to the city the remai-kable City Planning Exhibit of the American 
City Bureau. 

Has stimulated interest in honest and efficient advertising through the 
Publicity Club department. 

Has assisted many worthy organizations working for the public welfare by 
permitting the gratuitous use of the chamber's hall and offices. 

All this, and many other features of the service of the chamber, were made 
possible through its excellent equipment. In 1912, the city's newest and almost 
its tallest building, constructed by C. W. Murdock, was named the Chamber of 
Commerce Building. By arrangement with the officers of the chamber, its con- 



172 A MODEEN HISTOKY OF NEW HAVEN 

struetion iueluded au ample and well appointed hall, with convenient offices 
for the chamber, and there its work and service has since been done. 

Ill 

So are two sides of New Haven's recent development — the civic and the 
material— represented hy two of its prominent societies. There are many 
other influences, less conspicuous, less known, at work. Some of them have had 
their day and ceased to be. No sketch of the progress of New Haven in this 
period would be complete without mention of the New Haven Confederation of 
Men's Church Clubs. The men's church organization — league or men's club 
or brotherhood^had come to be a conspicuous feature of New Haven church life 
soon after 1900. By 1909 at least half of the churches of New Haven had them, 
and others were constantly being added. One of the most successful of these 
was the Men's Club of the Church of the Redeemer, of which Lucius W. Hall 
was for many years the earnest and successful president. Mr. Hall, blessed with 
a keen sense of fraternity and brotherhood, had a vision of a union of these 
organizations. He began with the clubs in the churches of his own denomina- 
tion, the Congregational. By 1910 he had twelve or fourteen of these, in New 
Haven and vicinity, united in a federation. Soon after that he reached out 
to other denominations. His persistent effort resulted, some two years later, 
in the formal organization of the Confederation of Men's Church Clubs, repre- 
senting about forty organizations in churches of seven denominations, with a 
united membership of not far from two thousand men. Eventually the alliance 
was extended to more or less closely include the men's organizations of the 
Roman Catholic aud Jewish churches, and it seemed possible that the church- 
men of New Haven might be welded into a mighty force of union for work of 
common interest. 

There was, in the opinion of many, a distinct field for union of the sort. 
Churchmen of New Haven regarded it with lively interest and great hope. 
Burton Mansfield, who before this had won the loyal following of the church- 
men of New Haven by his leadership in the Laymen's Missionary and the ]Men 
and Religion Forward movements, was elected the first president, and served 
for two years. He was appropriately succeeded by Lucius W. Hall, to whose 
earnest work, more than anything else, the organization owed its existence. 
Under Mr. Mansfield and Mr. Hall some excellent movements for the betterment 
of New Haven were started, and had the confederation been continued in the 
spirit of its organization, its accomplishment might have been notable. But 
a new body of officers, elected to succeed Mr. Hall aud his more intimate asso- 
ciates, in tlieir wisdom decided that the confederation had not demonstrated its 
claim to a separate existence, and merged it — not to emerge, it seems — in the 
Civic Federation. 

Tho.se conversant with the development of men's fraternities in the New 
Haven churches in this decade will testify that the confederation had a more 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 173 

important aud lasting etfeet ou this feature of church progress than readily 
appears. It promoted the spirit of fellowship, it immensely encouraged the 
formation of new clubs aud the regeneration of old ones, and it started some 
reforms which it has beeu comparatively easy for others to bring to profitable 
fruitage. 

One other New Haven organization of noble record — also of blessed memory — • 
should be mentioned in this connection. The Economic Club of New Haven was 
a society of excellent intention, of wise guidance, of great service to the com- 
munity. Its plan was the familiar one, in its time, of having five or six dinners 
in the season, each followed by a discussion, from men of national prominence 
in many eases, of some important economic subject of the time. But the Eco- 
nomic Club lived in the days when New Haven's mind was diverted in many 
directions, not all of them highly impoi'tant. It suffered from lack of the 
appreciation which was its due, hence from lack of adequate support. Those 
who had carried its chief burden were fain, early in 1916, to merge its identity 
with the Civic Federation. 



CHAPTER XIX 
MANUFACTURING IN NEW HAVEN 

t 

SOME RESI'ECTS IN WHICH NEW HAVEN WAS A PIONEER DEVELOPMENT AND 

DESCRIPTION OF CITY 's INDUSTRIES 



New Haven is the greatest mamifaeturing city of a great manufacturing 
state. Changing conditions challenge this statement, but the facts may be pre- 
sented witli conlidcnee in their showing that, however the comparison may be 
in number of factories, employees, amount of capital invested or aggregate of 
product. New Haven has a standard of excellence, an extent of reputation, a 
variety and importance of manufactui-cs, which combine to make it Connecticut's 
greatest manufacturing city. 

These conditions find their causes back in the far beginnings, indeed. Ten 
years after the first settlement, we are told, men versed in every branch of the 
trades then known might be found in New Haven. Those known were few in 
comparison with the list today, and unfortunately no consistent record was kept, 
but it does not appear that New Haven had to import any workmen for any 
purpose. However, there was not at first much of a demand for manufacturing 
plants. The comnuinity was rather pastoral. But nine years after the first 
settlement there was a plant for making shoes, a i)lant of a size which might prop- 
erly distinguish it from the "cobbler shops'" of that and a later day. which 
made only to order. Timlier was dressed and lumber was manufactured, and 
beaver skins were prepared for export, soon enough after that to be counted 
among the early manufactures of New Haven. 

But all these and the other points of manufacturing interest which might 
have been found in the first century of New Haven's existence were of local 
note only. Manufacturing plants of size are the surest producers of rapid 
growth in a city, and New Haven's slow growth for the first century and a half 
of its existence seems to prove that its manufacturing development dated later 
than that. For that matter, that was true of most of the communities of the 
New World in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Before the invention 
of steam, only the towns which had water power facilities grew materially in 
mamifaeturing, and New Haven had very liniited opportunities in water power. 
Its scapr)rt. position made its destiny, and held it in prominence until the era 

174 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 175 

of modern manufacturing came. In that era, as we shall see — it began imme- 
diately after the close of the Revolutionary War — ^New Haven at once took a 
place of national prominence in American manufacturing. 

The familiar claim to "the greatest plant of its kind in the world," or in 
the country, is seldom resorted to in New Haven. Doubtless it has many manu- 
facturing institutions which might make it, and some w^hich do. But many 
New Haven factories can show (jualities so much more commending them to 
general confidence that there is no need of it. New Haven demonstrates in many 
ways that greatness does not consist alone, or chiefly, in size. There are five 
or six of the cardinal lines of American manufacturing which either started 
in New Haven or had close connections with tliis city in their early days. It 
has repeatedly been said that "the introduction of the Whitney cotton gin 
laid the foundation for the cotton industry." That Eli Whitney, who gave 
it the name, was, as nearly everybody knows, early identified with New Haven, 
and there, as early as 1793, established the first factory for the making of liis 
machine. 

Nationally, that was the beginning of New Haven manufacturing. This 
pioneering was followed not many years later by other contributions almost as 
notable to American manufacturing progress. The first rubber ever imported 
to this country was brought to Boston in 1800. It might not have done any- 
body much good had not Charles Goodyear, wizard of rubber development, been 
born in New Haven that .same year. It was not until forty-four years later that 
his genius flowered into the pi-actical manufacture of real rubber boots and 
shoes, but 1844, when Leverette Candee started that business in New Haven, 
was early in the days of New Haven or any other manufacturing. The firm of 
L. Candee & Company has kept New Haven on the rubber manufacturing map 
ever since. 

But considerably before 1840 New Haven was mentioned as one of the 
centers of the chaise-making industry in America. James Brewster, one of 
the founders of a family which has served and honored Connecticut in many 
other ways, started the carriage industry in New Haven in 1827. Other pio- 
neers in this manufacture came shortly after him, and despite the supposed 
decline in the use of the horse in the large centers of the east. New Haven 
has today thirty concerns rated as carriage makers. 

¥Ai Whitney did not confine his contribution to early New Haven manufac- 
,turing to the making of cotton gins, as we know. By 1798 he had gone into 
firearms out near the lake and on the road which still bears his name. And 
from that day to this, in every land where they burn gunpowder, the making 
of firearms has been identified with New Haven. The Winchester Repeating 
Arms Company was the lineal successor of the Whitney Arms Company, though 
organized sixty years after it, and the industry has grown by the attraction to 
this manufacturing center of indejiiendent companies until now, in this time of 
demand for war materials, there are liere four or five munitions concerns of note. 

The clock industry, as we know it in New Haven today, is not as old as 



176 A MODERN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN 

some persons think, but New Haven was in it in its beginnings, and had an 
important part. The New Haven Clock Company was planted here in 1817, and 
forty years later this concern absorbed the Jerome Clock Company, so that Hiram 
Camp and Chaunccy Jerome, two famous pioneer American clock makers, were 
jointly associated with New Haven. 

Still another industry that had one of its oldest roots in New Haven was 
the making of matches. Hatches were not made in the United States until 
1836, and it was several years later before machinery for their manufacture 
was sufficiently developed to make their production amount to much as an indus- 
try. E. B. Beecher of Westville was among the developers of the successful 
modern process of making matches, and had a factory in Westville for some 
years prior to the organization there of the Diamond Match Company in 1884. 
The importance which this concern assumed among the producers of matches in 
the country may be indicated by the fact that, when the match trust was organ- 
ized some fifteen years afterwards, it took the name of the Diamond Match Com- 
pany, under which title it operates today. Some of the important processes and 
mechanical advances which make possible the great magnitude of the match 
industry in these days are directly traceable to the progress achieved in New 
Haven. In addition to Mr. Beecher, J. P. Wright of New Haven is mentioned 
among the early inventors and developers of the match. 

New Haven is not prominently mentioned in the development of American 
.shipbuilding, but we know that it had a part in its establishment in New Eng- 
land as early as 1640. It appears that New Haven's product, then and in the 
two and one-half centuries after that for which it participated in the building 
of vessels, was mostly confined to coasting schooners, but some very notable 
vessels of this type were launched from New Haven yards before the industry 
waned here as all along the Connecticut shore. 

The manufacture of plumbers' and steamfitters' supplies did not noticeably 
develop in this country until near the middle of the last century, and not in 
New Haven until somewhat after that. Yet when it attained prominence, all 
at once New Haven was found to occupy a place in it very important in pro- 
portion to its size. So that by 1890 there were thirty-five factories in New 
Haven making plumbers' and gasfitters' supplies, hardware or machinery con- 
nected therewith. These had a capital of $196,450 then, and an annual output 
worth nearly half a million dollars. Both capital and annual product, of course, 
have materially increased since that time. The number of establishments of» 
the sort has now increased to 117, and there are in New Haven eleven factories 
devoted exclusively to the making of plumbers' supplies. 

The making of crackers, or "biscuit," an industry which became prominent 
in the east soon after the beginning of the nineteenth century, was early repre- 
sented in New Haven. In the days before the trust, the New Haven Baking 
Company was always included in a list of the leading biscuit baking concerns 
of New England. In the late 'nineties this was made a substantial part of the 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 177 

National Biscuit Company, and sinue then not more than two or tliree baking 
companies witli any claim to national standing have existed in New Haven. 

New Haven could show many other claims to belong among the pioneers of 
American manufacturing. It was from the tir.st the abode of Connecticut 
Yankees, and the Connecticut Yankee is versatile. Versatility has been a promi- 
nent characteristic of New Haven manufacturing. There is hardly a branch of 
the tree of American industry that has not at some time had a less or greater 
representation in Now Haven. It can, in fact, hardly be said to specialize in any- 
thing, so wide is its range of arts and crafts and trades. 

II 

These lines gave New Haven national and international note as a manufac- 
facturing city. But they did not give it a di.stinctiou which made it as widely 
known for its industry as it was for its education. The old "descriptive geog- 
raphies'' always put first the fact that New Haven was the home of Yale 
University, and second that it was the "City of Elms"; then, apparently as 
an incidental, that it had "extensive manufactures of firearms, clocks and 
carriages." So it was up to the time of the Civil War, whose effect, naturally, 
was seriously to cripple most of New Haven's industries with the exception of 
the making of fire arms. 

Then, after the war, came a new lease of life to New Haven manufacturing, 
and at the same time a broadening of its lines of production. Immediately 
many new industries began to come to the city, most of which have remained 
and flourished ever since. 

But still a greater awakening came with the crossing of the boundary line into 
the twentieth century, or about that date. The transportation and seaport 
advantages of the city had their efifect in multiplying industries, and New 
Haven had a fair name as a desirable place of residence. Moreover, its popu- 
lation was growing rapidly from immigration. Labor was abundant and easily 
obtained. The rapidity of factory growth was not fully realized at the time, 
but by the end of the first decade of 1900 we find a city with at least 500 manu- 
facturing establishments, employing altogether over 24,000 persons, several of 
them having from 2,000 to ^^flOO workers each. Their products were at that 
time rated at more than $50,000,000 a year. The number of plants has since then 
grown to nearly 800, and their invested capital approaches $18,000,000. The 
total number of workers at the present time is difficult to get. because of immense 
recent additions, and the secrecy which attends the manufacture of firearms 
and munitions. But it is frequently estimated, and generally without challenge, 
that the number employed in the leading one of these firearms factories alone 
is as great as the 24,000 accorded to all the New Haven factories in 1908. There 
are three principal concerns for the manufacture of munitions, the Winchester 
Repeating Arms Company, the IMarlin-Rockwell Arms Coi-poration and the 
]\raxim Company. 

Vol. I— 1 2 



178 A MODERN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN 

The other lines of manufacture in New Haven have, in the main, pursued 
the even tenor of their way, which is steady, consistent growth. Occasionally 
a new line comes into the company, and it generally stays. The New Haven 
manufacturing area, which used to be mostly along the railroad and harbor 
front, has materially extended, but is still mainly confined to the eastern and 
northern portions of the city. Hamdeu has been invaded in several directions. 
Some of the large factories have run over into Whitneyville, into Centerville 
and notably into Hamden Plains, which because of the "Canal Road," as it 
used to be called, has convenient shipping facilities. The residence and manu- 
facturing parts of the city are still pretty well separated, and those who so 
desire may, but for the scream of the early morning whistles, fancy themselves 
living in a non-manufacturing paradise. 

The student of New Haven manufacturing invariably reverts to the l)egin- 
nings of it. when Eli Whitney utilized the power of the stream that flows from 
the foot of Mount Carmel for the making of his cotton gin. He was six or 
seven miles down on that river, close to what are now the city limits of New 
Haven. Right under the brow of East Rock he built his dam and his modest 
factory, and right there has been a factory, used for one purpose or another, 
ever since. The story of the cotton gin, perhaps the most distinguislied romance 
of earl.y American manufacture, has been often told. Connecticut cannot claim 
the origin of the first Eli Whitney, but from the time that he built that first 
factory under East Rock he and his descendants have lived in New Haven, and 
been very much a part of its history. 

Whitney was a graduate of Yale in the class of 1792. How he aftei'ward went 
to the South expecting to teach, how he found the place filled and was obliged 
to accept the hospitality of his friend, Mrs. Greene, how there he learned of the 
unsolved problem of the cotton-growing South, and how his Yankee ingenuity 
came to the rescue and solved it with the cotton-gin — these are details in a pretty 
■well known tale. It might have been expected that the manufacture of the gin 
would at once begin his fortune, but such was not tiie case. It was said that 
he received in all about $90,000, which was indeed a fortune for that day. But 
out of that sum he had to equip his factory and pay the cost of tedious and 
expensive litigation to establish his rights to the patent on the cotton gin. For- 
tunes have been made on the manufacture of cotton gins after the Whitney 
model, but he did not make them. 

But he did not therefore die poor, after the manner of many of his lirethren 
of inventive fame. The Ihiited States did not disarm after the Revolutionary 
War; it had rather, in a .sense, to begin to arm. There was prospect of good 
money in making firearms for the government, and Whitney perceived it. He 
had begun making cotton gins in 1793, and in 1798 he took a contract to furnish 
10,000 muskets for the United States Government. He did not have the monop- 
oly of the country for that manufacture, but he seems to have had a method of 
manufacture which was as radical as had been his cotton-gin invention. The 
other gun makers ridiculed him. it is said, because he went so far in substituting 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 179 

machines for haiul labor. He was lacking in capital, too, but he seems to have 
been able to secure that without great difficulty. Success came without long 
waiting, and by 1812, as he puts it himself, he had developed the "most respect- 
able private establishment in the United States for carrying on the maniifacture 
of arms." 

It is interesting to know that this factory was in an important sense the 
pattern if not the parent of the most important firearms concerns in this part 
of the country. The Winchester Repeating Arms Company was its direct descend- 
ant, and began its career in the old factory at Lake Whitney. From it have 
directly or indirectly sprung the Arsenal at Springfield, the Colt Armory and 
Pratt & Whitney at Hartford, and the now defunct Arsenal at Harper's Ferry. 

It is less generally known that Eli Whitney made another important thing 
at the old Lake Whitney factory than the cotton-gin and the gun, and incident- 
ally added to New Haven's distinction as a pioneer manufacturing center. It 
was the very first milling machine made in this country. That was in 1818. The 
machine itself was a crude one, and .iudged by today's standards, of little use. 
There is good reason to suppose, however, that it served as an important model, 
and had no little influence on the manufacturing standards of its time. This 
quaint relic was almost lost at one time, but fortunately was rescued by the 
present Eli Whitney, and by him presented to Yale University, where it is now 
preserved with honor in the Mason IMechanical Engineering Laboratory. 

There must be a break, at least in continuity of control, between the industry 
which Eli Whitney founded and the actual beginnings of the institution which 
bears the name of Winchester. It is not the policy of the great arms manufactory 
to talk much about its business, or even about its crude and struggling begin- 
nings. Oliver F. Winchester, a strong citizen of New Haven and of Connecticut, 
who in 1866 was lieutenant governor, had started a general firearms industry 
in the old AYhitney factory about 1860. Strange as it may seem to us from the 
viewpoint of the present prosperity of every concern that can make firearms, 
Mr. Winchester seems to have had a struggle all through the war time. But 
he kept going, and in 1866 he succeeded in organizing a company for the manu- 
facture of a firearm that was a great improvement over the old Henry rifle. 
It was not intended as an army rifle. Mr. Winchester thought he saw in the 
still unconquered AYest a foeman, if such it might be called, worthy of the best 
he could make in shooting irons, and the sequel has commended his judgment. 

This rifle, named the "Winchester" at the start, has become so well known, 
not only in our West, but on every frontier and in every sporting country in 
the woi-ld, that "Winchester" has almost passed from a proper to a commou 
noun, and appi-oaches the strange distinction of losing its capital letter. In 
half a century the concern whose capital Oliver F. Winchester floated with such 
difficulty in 1866. its management passed to the second generation of his de- 
scendants, its stock quoted at but not for sale at *1,000 a share just before 
the great war. and rising to $2,500 or more a little later, had come to be a small 
city in itself. In 1913 it employed nearly 6,000 persons; its factories covered 



180 A MODERN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN 

over Hftv-eight acres of groimd, with twenty-eight acres of floor space devoted 
to inachinerv and tools. The effect of the war was to more than double this 
acreage and" to increase the number of buildings over fifty per cent. This is 
in addition to 396 acres beyond the city limits which the company controls for 
its powder storage and mixing houses and laboratories. Twenty-five miles to the 
ea.st, on a secluded -'island" or point beyond the salt marshes on the western 
side (if tlic mouth of the Hammonassett River, the company has a shooting range 
and proving grounds, where the crack of the rifle in the hands of experts who 
are testing the Winchester guns and ammunition sounds almost constantly the 

year around. 

Only approximate figures can be given of the present number of workers at 
the Wincliestcr plant. At times daring the war the factory has been worked 
in three eight-hour shifts a day. and it is reported that at such times as many 
as 8.000 persons have been employed in each shift. What will be the status of 
the great concern after the war is problematical, but those familiar with the 
organization and efficiency of this world-known manufacturing institution have 
little fear as to the future. 

It is a somewhat common impression that the wooden clock movement, fairly 
familiar to those acquainted with the "inwards" of antique timepieces, is the 
oldest type of clock. It is merely the oldest in Connecticut, and Connecticut 
clocks are the oldest native to this country. The metal movement was known 
before that in other clock making countries, but material for its manufacture 
was out of the reach of the early clockmakers of Connecticut, so they ingeniously 
made shift with wood as a substitute, using metal only for pinions and bushings. 
Evid(>nee is still with us. in clocks running well on in their second century, that 
they made a good article. It is now almost a century and a half since Elihu 
Terry whittled out the First Connecticut clocks in East Windsor. He moved 
to Plymouth later, and for all his handicap of lack of labor saving machinery, 
was making money rapidly for those times when Chauneey Jerome appeared 
at Bristol as his competitor. Bristol and its region has been one of the homes 
of Connecticut clock making ever since, though the Jerome interests were trans- 
ferred to New Haven well back in the last century. 

It was early in the nineteenth century that Hiram Camp, founder of the 
New Haven Clock Company, was associated with the Jerome industry in Bristol. 
It is .iust about a century since he came to New Haven and founded, in con- 
junction with .lerome. the industry which placed New Haven on the clock map 
and has kept it there ever since. For the first forty years of that time it was 
independent of the Jerome company, which ran a factory in New Haven, first 
foi- the makino- of clocks and later for the making of cases for movements which 
were made in Bristol. Soon after 1850, this concern got into financial difficulties, 
and about 1857 was absorbed by the New Haven Clock Company. 

Since some time before that New Haven clocks have been standard in the 
world of timepieces. Almost every type except the tower clock has been made 
here, and in recent years this concern has developed the clock-watch, or popular 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 181 

pocket timepiece, to a couspicuous degree of success. These are made in a variety 
of grades and sizes, many of which compare most favorably with watches of 
the sort much more widely advertised. It is not so generally known that the 
American Pedometer Company, a concern which makes the best known pedometer 
on the American market, is a branch of the New Haven Clock Company, and that 
all of its output is made at that factory which occupies a large part of two sides 
of Hamilton Street in New Haven. The clock company is capitalized at 
$1,000,000, and employs upwards of 2,000 hands. Its product goes to every 
land of tlie world where time is regarded as anything like money, and is recog- 
nized as of high standard. 

The builder almost the world over has "Sargent" in his mind when he thinks 
of building hardware. Perhaps no concern in New Haven makes its city's 
name more widely known than Sargent & Company. It is strictly a New Haven 
concern, backed from the beginning largely by New Haven capital. That be- 
ginning was made in a small way in 1864, and has grown to impressive pro- 
portions. Sargent & Company is an institution that stands by itself, its group 
of factories a city in themselves, conveniently situated on the railroad and 
harbor fi-ont. In them are employed upwards of 4,000 workers, the concern 
being, normally, the second in importance among the manufactories of New 
Haven. A list of the small hardware made there would fill a small hook. Some 
of the more familiar lines, such as locks, latches, knobs, door checks, planes, 
steel squares and other tools, are well known. Of some of these there is an 
endless variety, but there is also a myriad of articles in small hardware made 
by the company which even the average worker in the institution would find it 
difficult to enumerate in any complete way. 

The rubber industry has not waned in New Haven, though the great centers 
of it have been mostly in other cities. Since in 1842 Leverette Candee estab- 
lished his factory for the making of rubber boots and shoes under the Goodyear 
patent, the concern which bears his name has been sticking to that line of product. 
It maintains its right to the title of oldest manufactory of rubber boots and 
shoes in the world, making every kind, style and size of rubber footwear, includ- 
ing special styles for all the different countries of the world where rubbers are 
known. Other manufactories of rubber goods, in larger variety, have come to 
join it in later years, of which the more important are the Seamless Rubber 
Company and the Baumann Rubber Company. There are now in New Haven 
eight concerns in all making various forms of rubber goods. 

The Peck Brothers & Company is another of the world-known manufacturing 
concerns of New Haven, and illustrates another characteristic line of New Haven- 
made goods. It is the leader of a dozen concerns making plumbers' supplies, 
and has carried this line, particularly modern liathroom fittings, as near to 
perfection as it is carried anywhere in the world. Some of the other well known 
concerns in this branch of business are the Economy Manufacturing Company, 
bath tubs; the C. S. Mcrsiek & Company, handling plumbers' fittings in general, 
and the National Pipe Bending Company, house piping and coils. 



182 A MODERN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN 

Hardly auy business has so ehauged from its early form as that of carriage 
building. The horse may have diminished in numbers in New Haven, but still 
New Haven makes carriages for the country. The thirty carriage makers of 
the city are not all of them building mostly coaches for fours, and the stately 
landaulet gives place to more sprightly modern designs. But still there are 
coaches in use, and some of the linest of them are made and trimmed here. 
There are still some fine old New Haven names in the list of rotary firms. The 
New Haven Carriage Company is the successor of the old Brewster institution. 
Henry Hooker & Company and the M. Armstrong Company are names that recall 
the finest traditions of the carriage trade. Dann Brothers & Company continue 
a growing business in supplies and carriage parts, and the D. W. Baldwin firm 
still builds as well as repairs carriages and automobile bodies, regardless of 
whether horses have any connection with them. C. Cowles & Company, a firm 
uow well advanced in its fourth quarter of a ceutury, makes, as it has done for 
years, the finest sort of coach and carriage and automobile fittings and lamps. 
A. T. Demarest & Company, A. Ochsner & Sons Company and Samuel K. Page 
complete the line of distinguished leaders. 

New Haven holds its lead in the corset industry, with twelve factories, some 
of them making the world's best known lines. This industry does not date back 
so many decades, for it is only in recent years that coi'set making has been 
raised to the plane of high art, but it now employ's .several thousands of workers 
in New Haven, and is one of the city's most reliable industries. In the front 
ranks of the trade are such firms as Strouse, Adler & Company, I. Newman 
& Sons, the Strouse Corset Company, Henry H. Todd, the Hiekok Company 
and Otteuheimer & "Weil. 

New Haven's line of makers of machinery is a long one, including at present 
twenty-seven firms. Some of the best known of them as the Greist Manufactur- 
ing Company, sewing machine attachments ; the Geometric Tool Company, 
special tools; the William Schollhorn Company, pliers and nippei's; the Snow 
& Petrelli Company, hardwai-e and special machinery; the Hoggson & Pettis 
Manufacturing Company, dies, chucks and special tools ; the McLagon Foundry 
Company, pattern makers and iron founders; the New Haven Manufacturing 
Company, machine tools and special machinery ; the Rowland Machine Company, 
special machine builders; the Fuller Manufacturing Company, book binders' 
and printers' machinery; R. H. Brown & Company, special tools and machines; 
the Eastern Screw Machine Corporation, screw machine products. 

Cigar making is an important industry in New Haven, as forty-seven estab- 
lishments, some of them of considerable size, indicate. Some of the lirands made 
in them are called for in almost every large center of cigar consumption. Of 
course, as in every city where cigars are made, there are many small concerns 
which go to make up the total number. Some of the leading manufactories in 
this line are Frederick D. Grave and Lewis Osterweis & Sons. 

New Haven has its share of indu.stries which, though including few factories, 
are peculiar to the city. The more important of these have already been men- 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 183 

tioucd. la addition, tliere are such concerus as the Andrew B. Hendryx Com- 
pany, widely famous for bird cages and fishing reels ; the Acme Wire Company, 
whose peculiar product lias made a place for it in the electi'ical world entirely 
beyond proportion to the length of its record on the market; the Regal Silver 
Company, New Haven 's lone representative in a business mostly monopolized by 
its neighbors ; the Lionel Manufacturing Company, in the business of making toy 
electric railroads; the National Folding Box and Paper Company and its half a 
dozen smaller associates in the box making industry ; and not less than the others, 
the Bigelow Company, whose big B stands for boilers the world over. Publishers 
are not usually included in a list of manufacturers, but perhaps the Price & Lee 
Company, makers of directories for over sixty towns in five states, might prop- 
erly be added to the makers of New Haven's fame. 

One of New Haven's newest factories perhaps deserves special mention. 
Albert C. Gilbert, only a few years ago, was a young Yale student who was 
helping himself through college by giving exhibitions in legerdemain in the 
evenings. Then he conceived the idea of making sets of magic apparatus for 
amateurs. By the time lie was graduated from the Yale Medical school he had 
the manufacturing bent stronger than the medical. He had invented a struc- 
tural steel toy for boys which he called the "Gilbert Erector." On leaving 
college he organized the Mysto Manufacturing Company, to make his magic 
sets and the Erector. He proved his advertising genius at the same time, and 
his business grew in the night. It spread fast and far, and in a few years 
forced him to move into one of the finest and best equipped of the modern 
factories of New Haven, that on Blatchley avenue formerly occupied by the 
Fuller Company. Tliere the A. C. Gilbert Company now makes, in addition 
to the Erector and Mysto sets, the Polar Cub electric fans, electric toy motors, 
the Gilbert chemistry oufits, Gilbert toy machine guns, toy diving submarines, 
Gilbert electrical sets and the "Briktor. " The inventor has recently brought 
out an ingenious set of puzzles, some of which he is including in many of the 
comfort kits sent to the far away soldiers. 

These are merely some of the "high spots" in New Haven manufacturing. 
Its variety is almost endless. The almost eight hundred manufacturing con- 
cerns in the city of New Haven make about 155 lines of goods, some of them, 
of course, making several diff'erent lines. Fourteen of the lines are i-epresented 
by ten or more factories each. These are : Carriage makers, 30 ; machinerv 
manufacturers, 27 ; cigar manufacturers, 47 : cabinet makers, 18 ; corset manu- 
facturers, 12; jewelry manufacturers, 12; confectioners, 14; engineering con- 
tractors, 54; bakers, 80: marble works, 11; medicine manufacturers, 14; hard- 
ware manufacturers. 25 ; hat manufacturers, 11 ; ice cream manufacturers, 11. 
Of the large manufacturing corporations in New Haven, 133 have a combined 
capital of over $17,000,000. 

In the district covered by this history outside of New Haven, represented 
mostly by Meriden, Wallingford, West Haven and Branford, there are 245 con- 



184 A MODERN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN 

cerns, representing 114 lines of manufacture. Here, also, there are many eases 
where one firm represents several lines. In some cases, as found in Meriden and 
Wallingford especially, the history of an important American industry is in- 
cluded in the mamifaeturing history of the towi. These will be treated at lenolh 
under their respective towns. 



CHAPTER XX 
THE NEW HAVEN MANUFACTURERS' EXHIBIT 

CONCEPTION AND FORMATION OP THE FIRST PERMANENT DISPLAY OF ITS SORT IN 
AMERICA — REVIEW OF SOME OF THE PRINCIPAL FEATURES IT PRESENTS 



How do we know that New Haven is a great manufacturing city ? What 
does it make besides firearms and eloc-ks and perhaps carriages and their parts? 
These are questions which miglit he asked, and if they have not always been, 
one of the reasons is that the manufacturing light of New Haven has been too 
much hidden within the four walls of its dingy factories, and beneath their low 
roofs. The visitor from Japan knew much of what New Haven makes before he 
left his land ; the dweller in New Haven has, until within the last few years, 
known comparatively little. For the means of advertising the manufactures of 
New Haven in the most sensible, natural, effective way was not discovered 
until a few years ago. 

It was in the summer of 1911 that two citizens of New Haven, each vigilant 
for the welfare of his city, visited Europe. One of them, George Dudley Sey- 
mour, was renewedly impressed with what he had noticed before in some of the 
Old World's manufacturing centers, the development of the permanent exhibit 
of local manufactured products. On the other, Charles E. Jultn, it dawned in 
its fullness for the first time. They talked it over together on the way back. 
They talked it over with other citizens after they returned. Why not such 
an exhibit for New Haven ? There was not, so far as they were informed, such 
an exhibit in America. Here was a chance for New Haven to be a pioneer, to 
demonstrate that it was tlie most progressive as well as the greatest manufactur- 
ing city in Connecticut. Here was a chance to show most effectively what it 
seemed difficult to impress upon New Haven people and others, that New 
Haven was something substantially more than the seat. of Yale University, and 
that its claim to manufacturing greatness was nnich more than an empty boast. 

Industrial fairs had not been unknown in New Haven. Many an organi- 
zation had given a successful show, and for a few days had a surprising display 
of New Haven's industries and manufactures. The people had seen and mar- 
veled — and gone away and forgotten. But a permanent manufacturers' exhibit 
would be quite another thing. It would stick until it had successfully caught 

185 



186 A MODERN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN 

the attention, not only of the people of New Haven, but of all the country 

'round. 

It took time to make the captains of industry in New Haven nestle up to 
the idea. But the two men who had it were able missionaries. They had the 
newspapers on their side. And, fortunately, they had the aid of the awakened 
Chamber of Commerce. There was no need to waste time, and no time was 
wasted. The plan appealed to President Isaac M. Ullman of the chamber, and 
he appointed as a committee to develop it George Dudley Seymour, former 
Governor Rollin S. Woodruff, Edward R. Sargent, Walter Camp, H. Stuart 
Hotchkiss, P^'rank J. Schollhorn and Charles E. Julin. This committee saw to 
it that the scope and advantages of the plan were fully placed before prac- 
tically every manufacturer in New Haven and the New Haven district. The 
response was most encouraging. It struck the practical men with the force of 
a brand new idea. They promised co-operation. 

Accordingly, a temporary organization was formed on September 16, 1911, 
and the following were elected directors : Isaac ]\L Ullman, Edwin P. Root, 
Frank J. Schollhorn, H. Stuart Hotchkiss and Harry B. Kennedy. They were 
appointed immediately following a well-attended meeting of representative man- 
ufacturers who pledged themselves to participate in such an exhibit, and the 
directors were instructed to secure a place and get the exhibit under way as 
soon as possible. 

In the middle of the nineties the printing house of 0. A. Dorman erected an 
ambitiously ample building on the north side of Chapel Street, east of what 
is now "the cut," or subway hy which the trains of the New Haven road pro- 
ceed through the city to the northward and eastward. It had not prospered 
to match its large building, and a few years later the building was sold to 
Minotte E. Chatfield. It is said now that he had at the time some thought that 
the building would be ideal for such exhibits, though he did not, probably, think 
of using it for a permanent one. He did not at once push it for such a purpose, 
however, but remodeled and equipped it for a place of amusement, and named 
it "the Auditorium." But it had not been a success for that use, its acoustic 
drawbacks being against it. The building was open to engagements, and the 
temporary directors of the exhibit a.ssociation were not slow in perceiving that 
it would make an ideal place for their purpose. 

This edifice, located at 671 to 677 Chapel Street, was ea.sily secured, its 
owner being as enthusiastic as anybody for the project. There the exhibit was 
formally opened on May 15, 1912. Meanwhile, the permanent New Haven Man- 
ufacturers' Exhibit Association had been formed, with these directors: Fi-ank 
S. Cornwell, Edward R. Sargent, Harry B. Kennedy. Frank J. Scliollhorn, 
Winche.ster Bennett, John J. Reidy and Charles C. Hale. They elected as pres- 
ident Edward R. Sargent : vice president, Frank S. Cornwell ; Treasurer, Harry 
B. Kennedy ; secretary, G. Edward Osborn ; executive committee, Winchester 
Bennett, chairman, Frank S. Cornwell and Harry B. Kennedy. 

So far as the exhibitors were concerned, the exhibit was a success from the 



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AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 187 

start. A large number of the most important manufacturers of the city and of 
some of the towns a little outside placed most attractive displays iu the rooms. 
The large floor of the Auditorium was railed off into sections, and one or two 
exhibits were placed in each. These displays have been developed and enlarged 
as the business progi-essed, and have been an accurate index of the business and 
manufacturing growth of the city. The firms represented, most of them intelli- 
gent advertisers, were not slow to see the possibilities of the .show. Something 
over a hundred of the best concerns iu New Haven now have displays there, 
and the number tends to grow. 

The New Haven and wider public, on their part, have appeared to need educa- 
tion as to the value of the exhibit. Those who conceived it at the start have 
tried to see to that education. Their idea, and it seems a reasonable one. was 
that the citizens of New Haven would deem the exhibit one of the sights of their 
city. New Haven is annually visited by thousands from all parts of the country 
and beyond. Almost every member of the University has his guests each year 
of his stay, some of them coming from far. Many of them come with the im- 
pression that the University is about all of New Haven. It was evident that the 
exhibit might excellently serve as a corrective of this impression. It was to be 
an expression of the other side of New Haven which in .justice should be brought 
to the attention, not only of the visitors but of the people at home. 

It has worked out in that way, Init slowly. The Auditorium is an admirable 
exhibit building in all but location. Somehow, ""the cut," as the channel of 
the railways is called, acts as a dividing line of the current of New Haven 
motion. Business and trade and civic and social interests seem to center on the 
liither side of it, and it takes inducement and advertising to draw them to the 
other side. The advertising has been tried. A great signboard, easily visible 
from State and Chapel streets and above, calls attention to the Manufacturers' 
Exhibit. Once a year, or thereabout, the association was wont to have a demon- 
stration week, during wliieh there were special inducements, of souvenirs and the 
like, to visit the exhibit. These things, with the fairly constant aid of at least 
some of the newspapers, have served to keep the exhibit before the people of 
New Haven. It was, when established, the first permanent exhibit of its kind 
in America. It remains in a sense uniciue, though other manufacturing centei-s 
have been quick to sec the virtue of the idea, and have followed New Haven's 
example. 

Nothing is more effective for teaching than the visible evidence of tlie thing 
done. Here, displayed in one great aggregation, is what New Haven makes 
with its machines and with its hands. Here is the concrete evidence of the 
manufacturing brain of a great manufacturing city, operating through more 
than a century. New Haven is a center of education ; it is also a center of that 
characteristic Yankee ingenuity. "Made in New Haven" is a seal-motto as 
honorable in its way as "Lux et Veritas." There could not be a more self- 
respecting, unboastful way of displaying the virtues of the city than an ex- 
hibit of the best of its manufactured product. 



188 A MODERN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN 

The exhibit is open every week day at convenient hours, and is in constant 
care of a superintendent and an able corps of assistants, who are ready to 
direct visitors, answer their questions, explain all about t^e products and their 
exhibitors. All that is possible is done to make the place attractive, especially 
to the stranger in the city, to put New Haven's "best foot forward." There 
are local and long distance telephones, forty-five directories of the principal 
telephone lines, typewriters a ad a public stenographer. There is a writing 
room, and a reading room in which are twenty or more of the leading daily 
newspapers of the state and country, and nearly twenty of the principal trade 
journals. In definite ways this is made a manufacturing headquarters of New 
Haven, in which appointments may be made between local inannfacturcrs and 
their associates from other cities, or where visiting representatives of the trades 
may meet New Haven manufacturers and business men. 

All this has been the growth of time, and is only partly grown as yet. New- 
Haven has yet to learn to use the exhibit as it might. But the response of both 
the New Haven and the outside public ha.s been encouraging, in the main. 
Such an innovation as this was in its inception is naturally slow in its dawning. 
But New Haven is proud of its ^Manufacturers' Exhibit, and to those who visit 
the city from far and near it seems, of course, more wonderful than it does to 
the people at home. Judged impartially, it really is a remarkable display of 
manufacturing achievement. 

II 

As a fairly adequate picture of modem manufacturing New Haven is liere 
displayed, it is fitting to attempt in this place a sketch of some of the leading 
features of the exhibit. The Auditorium itself is a well made building of at- 
tractive business architectui'e, stretching for a hundred feet along the north side 
of Chapel Street only a little way below w^iere the Union Station was in the days 
of a generation ago. Within, it is light, airy and well adapted to the purpose 
of ample display of a great variety of products. The exhibit booths have been 
separated from each other by divisions which keep them distinct without shut- 
ting off the light, and yet without detracting from their united effectiveness. 

One of the first things for which the visitor from outside of New Haven looks 
— the thing of which he had heard if he knows nothing else of the city's manu- 
factures, is the showing of the Winchester Repeating Arms Company. There 
it is, its big "red W" making it seen afar. Appropriately, it is conveniently 
placed where one should begin his survey of the exhibit. One who looks there 
for evidence of the company's war material will not find it. Winchester's is 
not, in ordinary times, a place where munitions are made. There is a large 
variety of sporting rifles, shotgun.s, small arms and ammunition. There are 
details showing .something of the long and distinguished history of the insti- 
tution, and something of the record made and trophies won liy its products. 
Considering the size of the concern, which was and is the largest employer of 
labor in New Haven, it is a concise exhibit, but it tells much. 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 189 

One of the most impressive of the displays is near by. It is that of the old 
and extensive manufactory which had made New Haven's manfaeturing name 
almost as •widel.y known as its educational name — Sargent & Company. In 
three large cases is shown a seemingly infinite variety of small hardware, begin- 
ning with locks which are "the sign of quality,'" and going through the long 
'list of builders' hardware, house fittings, tools and hardware miscellany which 
the name of this firm makes "sterling." It is a revelation to most Xew Haven- 
ers, even to some of the multitude who work in one department or another 
of the great group of factories included under this name. 

Few visitors fail to find fascination in the generally attractive display of 
the New Haven Clock Compan\-. which is constantly changing as the company 
adds to its lines of modern timepieces. Knowing that the town is a "clock 
town," visitors from New Haven or elsewhere may hei-e learn why. There is 
the whole family of Father Time's servitors, from tlie stately hall-tower of 
grandfather to the tiny wrist or pin watch of my little lady, and all admirably 
displayed. 

Where is the son of Izaak Walton that does not know the Hendryx reel? 
Or the canary lover that has not sheltered her yellow pet in a Hendryx bra.ss 
cage? It is a unii|ue industry, peculiar to New Haven. Here is an excellent 
exhiliit of its whole line of products. They are standard of their sort for the 
world, and have done not a little to make New Haven famous. Theirs is not 
a small part of the interest in the general exhibit. 

There are few cities in New England where the Peck Brothers & Company 
plumbers' supplies are not known to the plumbing trade, or where the Peck 
trade name is not well known to householders. This firm's display is an ideally 
fitted bath room. It is not an exaggeration, for its like can be found in many a 
fine residence from here to Los Angeles on the west, and to Buenos Aires on 
the south. 

Two firms with displays sonunvhat technical, but very int<^'resting on ex- 
aminations are the William SchoUhorn Company and the H. B. Ives Company. 
The former's specialty is pliers, nipi)ers and punches which bear the Bernard 
patent mark, and the latter shows an attractive line of builders' hardware, 
high grade window and door specialties. 

The advertising artist says that "the sun never sets on 'Jlilford' hack saw 
blades; north, east, south, west they are known in every civilized country in 
the world." Here they are displayed, the product of the Henry G. Thompson 
& Sons Company, along with an interesting line of metal sawing machines, tool 
holders and other hardware. 

To say that the Barnes Tool Company just makes pipe cutters does not de- 
scribe much, but to see their display here of clippers, of everything from a 
quarter-inch to a twelvo-inch pipe is to be impressed. A few specialties are 
thrown in for setting. 

A good many residents of Xew Haven, asked at random where emery comes 
from, would never think of connecting its manufacture with their city. They 



:90 A MODERN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN 

need to see the neatly arranged glass jars eontaining the Oriental Emery Com- 
pany's finished produet of Turkish and Naxos emery, with samples of the crude 
material. Two of the eoncerns that have made Westville famous since the 
Diamond :Match Company left it are the Geometric Tool Company and the 
Greist JIanufacturing Company. The former makes threading tools and die 
heads and taps of the finest type, and the latter sewing machine attachments. 
Each has a most illuminating display of its products, and the Greist Company 
goes further with a large showing of fascinating mni'hine needlework made with 
the things it makes. 

One of the firms tiiat has had a large place in New Haven manufacturing 
history, as we have seen, is C. Cowles & Company. It would be difficult for 
one of its townsmen, even knowing its history, to appreciate the fineness of its 
products but for such a display as it has at the exhibit. It has one of the most 
attractive booths on the floor, showing the refinement of carriage and automobile 
lighting, together with a variety of small fittings for vehicles of luxury. 

New Haven products are not, as one might suppose, confined to hardware; 
it makes good things to eat as well. Here is the most appetizing di.splay of the 
John T. Doyle Company — catsups, beans and pork, beef stew, soups, extracts 
and a constantly increasing line of conserved products of Connecticut farms 
and gardens. 

New Haven, we all knew, was a rubber town. Specifications are here in 
the exhibit of the L. Candee & Company. Its giant rubber boot, such as Og of 
Bashan might have worn had he been as big as his reputation — or it might have 
been one of those seven-league boots — looms up with great advertising effect. 
But there is a surprising variety of actually wearalile things, in all sizes of the 
human foot and in all colors of the fashionable .shoe, together with a few other 
rubber products of the company. 

Another rubber company of smaller size has a larger and more varied exhibit. 
The Seamless Rubber Company shows everything from rubber nipples to auto- 
mobile tires. Its display is highly interesting, as well as a most illuminating proof 
of the versatility of New Haven's manufactures. 

Still other lines of rubber are shown by New Haven's third concern in that 
line, the Baumann Rubber Company, which has an exhibit including rubber 
tubing, rubber balls, atomizers, syringes and fittings. 

When the honorable manufactui'ing envoys of the Japanese government were 
being shown over New Haven a few years ago their guides emphasized to them 
the greatness of this cla.ssie city's corset product. They listened as courteously 
as if it were not true that stays do not form any part of the costume of the 
women of their counti-y. In pretty nearly every other land except Japan and 
the land of the Zulus, New Haven-made corsets are known, l^erhaps it is not 
always known that they are made in New Haven. Residents of the city who 
would have evidence may view here, to their instruction, the display of Strouse, 
.\dler & Company, the Strouse Corset Company and I. Newman & Sons. 

The Acme Wire Company, having one of the large modern factories of New 




THE UNITED ILLUMINATING COllPANVS BUILDIN(i, NEW HAVEN 





-..SisssiMilsr 



aill2S£SSS===--'*- 







THE ACJIE WIRE COilPANY, NEW HAVEN 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 191 

Haven, manufactures simply magnet wires, but it has a displa.v which enlarges 
that statement considerably. It fills two large showcases with the fruits of its 
labor, and occupies a place in the exhibit proportionate to its importance. 

The Oven Equipment & ^Manufacturing Company is one of the less known 
New Haven factories, but m the light of what it has to show it merits a better 
acquaintance. It displays the Crawford sectional oven, and the Sentinel lim^ 
of automatic iron heaters. 

The National Folding Box & Paper Company, as even he who runs by its 
great factory on the train may observe, is one of the largest concerns in New 
Haven, and makes the claim to be the largest enterprise of its kind in the 
world. It has an exhibit commensurate with its importance, both in variety 
and attractiveness. 

The New Haven Truck & Auto Works has the impressive exhibit of a full 
grown five-ton truck, plainly a piece of good workmanship, and a convincing 
proof that New Haven makes motor vehicles also. 

John P. Smith & Company have a gi-eat showing of goods made from wire, 
both ornamental and useful, of which fireplace screens, tree guards, bank and 
office railings and wire cloth are examples. 

The Bigelow Company and the National Pipe Bending Company, neighlior 
concerns, have a joint exhibit. The former manufactures boilers of all de- 
scriptions, and the latter makes feed water heaters and coils. The nature of 
their product is such that its importance cannot be shown, except to the person 
technically informed in their line, in such an exhibit. They illustrate, how- 
ever, an important branch of New Haven manufacturing. 

The Day Company has an attractive booth built of its own product. For its 
line is metal cornices and sheet metal and copper work in general, and its edifice 
is a canopy that seldom fails to attract attention, and covers some of its other 
products. 

The New Haven Gas Light Company makes more things than the uninitiated 
suppose. Here in its exhibit are samples of gas coke, ammonia and tar prod- 
acts, and a line of its mechanical appliances. The opportunity is improved, 
also, to set forth its arguments for the use of gas for all purposes. It is a 
showing that never fails to hold the attention of the house owner and house- 
keeper. 

The Hoggson & Pettis Company, one of the growing and important manu- 
facturing institutions of the city, has an interesting line of chucks, dies, molds 
and similar small machine fittings that the machinist best understands. This 
company has since 1849 made a specialty of the designing, developing and per- 
fecting of tools for the special purposes of that rubber industry which has been 
so important to New Haven. 

The New Haven Manufacturing Company, makers of machine tools, display 
one of their "New Haven" lathes, a piece of work that appeals to the ma- 
chinist as a thoroughbred horse does to the horseman. It is an emphatic proof 
of the variety and exactness of New Haven's product. 



192 A MODEKN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN 

The Malleable Iron Fittings Company is a Branford concern which is in 
many ways so allied to New Haven as thoroughly to belong to this exhibit. 
Its showing is a material addition to the variety and virtue of the display. It 
comes from a plant which stands high among its class in the United States, pro- 
ducing steel fittings for all kinds of high pressure service, steam and gas fittings, 
refined malleable iron, semi-steel castings and marine hardware. The display 
is well arranged and attractive. 

The Howards' Company does an extensive business aside from the numu- 
facture of fire brick, fire clay and tile brick, but these are the things which it 
can best show in the exhibit. It is one of the progressive concerns of New 
Haven, and its display is a significant one. 

The Eastern Screw Corporation has a showcase full of small but highly 
important, and to the machinist interesting things. The machinist, at least, 
knows that they are well made. Though the Eastern Machinery Company has 
a similar name it has a distinctly diflferent line, for it makes passenger and 
freight elevators. Its goods are somewhat difficult to show in such a place, but 
it has a good exhibit of the mechancial end of its business. 

The Snow & Petrelli Manufacturing Company has a good showing of its 
line of yacht reverse gears, yacht cannons and specialties. James Graham & 
Company make brass and composition castings, and have a display of their 
goods of which small boat propellers, bells, tire holders and metal hat and coat 
racks are varied examples. 

New Haven's printing and imblishing companies, as manufacturers, make a 
good exhibit. The Tuttle, Morehouse & Taylor Company shows its blank books, 
samples of its job printing and its filing cases. The Wilson H. Lee Company 
shows its book binding, its printing and some of its office equipment, and also 
keeps on file some of the more demanded of its numerous directories. Thomas 
E. Elliott, one of New Haven's leading engravers, has an interesting exhibit 
of his work. ;\Iarshall, Smitii & Company, lithographers, complete the excellent 
showing of the printing and publishing craft. 

The Century Brass Company has a neat and notable exhibit of brass fire- 
place fixtures, railings and specialties. George W. Hindinger shows that he 
makes some fireplace goods such as andirons and fenders, Init of iron, and in 
addition fire escapes, grills and steel gates. 

New Haven knows that one of its modern and progressive manufacturing 
concerns is the English & ilersick Company, but not everybody could say. what 
it makes without the a.ssi.stanee of its excellent collection at the exhibit. It in- 
cludes automobile and carriage lamps and fixtures, automobile fittings of all 
sorts, high grade locks and hinges. 

Most users of automobiles have heard of the flavor Radiator Company. It 
makes .iust radiators. We also perceive that the Morgan & Humiston Company 
is an (lid New Haven concern which makes sash, doors and l)linds. The Lionel 
Manufaeturing Company is a producer of electric tnv railwavs. And the New 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 193 

Haven Jlirror and Novelty Company has a surprising variety of mirrors and 
picture frames. All of these are well represented. 

Among the rest there is a display of contrasts that well illustrates New 
Haven's manufacturing versatility. Dairying lias now become a manufacturing 
business, as the display of the New Haven Dairy Company proves. New Haven 
is not supposed by manj- to be a silver town, but the exhibit of the Regal Silver 
Company is a revelation. New Haven's piano art is portrayed by the exhibi- 
tion of A. G. Ely & Son. The Globe Silk \\'orks show spool and skein silks iu 
variety. The \Yest Haven Manufacturing Company specializes in hack saws and 
their machinery. Button, button, who's got the button? The New Haven But- 
ton Company, in lots of variety. The Sperry & Amos Company have a great 
showing of interior house trim and furniture. Another screw concern with an 
attractive variety is the New Haven ^Machine Screw Company. And the Fold- 
ing Mattress Company invite to rest on their tempting line of mattresses. 

The number constantly grows, and the seeker of sights or instruction might 
wander for days around the aisles of the large building learning new things 
about New Haven, what its people do and what are the nerves of trade whicli 
reach from it to all parts of the earth. A complete history of New Haven 
manufacturing would be a wonderful, as well as a romantic story. But this 
New Haven ilanufacturers' Exhibit would be needed to illustrate the work. 



Vol. 1—13 



CHAPTER XXI 
THE YALE BOWL 

THE NEED WHICH MOTHERED IT AXD THE MAN WHO FATHERED IT — ITS CONSTRUC- 
TION ITS DESCRIPTION AND ITS SUCCESS — ITS UNEXPECTED RESOURCES 



It came to pass in the infant days of tins century that a great change had 
eoaie over the public attitude toward Yale sport. The days when football par- 
took of the nature of a burlesque performance, and young men nondescript in 
their gai'b and still more nondescript in their actions strove in a crude form of 
football on the Green — the only athletic field they had — while townsmen, if they 
noticed at all, jeered, had long since passed. Yale had gone out to the far western 
boundary of the city and lieyoiid and acquired its own athletic field. This at 
first was no more than a practice lot. Then, as baseball and later football 
developed, there were erected "bleachers,'' and afterward what were by courtesy 
called "grand stands." Still these were mostly for college use. The public, 
except through direct relation with the college, was little interested. The larger 
football games, which first attracted the attention of the public, were held at 
Springfield or New York. There was no need for anything more than a crude 
and limited grand stand and l)leachers for the baseball games and the minor 
football contests. 

Then came the action of the college athletic authorities decreeing that college 
games be played on college grounds. This meant that the Yale-Harvard game, 
which in the late 'nineties had been attracting increasing general interest, should 
be played every second year on the Yale field. The athletic management at once 
made plans to enlarge the crude stands, first to accommodate some such crowds 
as had witnessed the game at Springfield, say 20,000 people. They did not take 
account of the number in New Haven and its vicinity who would care to see 
the game. They were made to notice it by the increased demand for tickets 
which came every second year. The stands were repeatedly enlarged, until by 
1910 they seated about 35,000 people, and engineers told the management that it 
had reached the limit of safety with wooden stands of that character. They were 
warned, moreover, that so great a mass of wooden timbers and seating, with 
so large a number of people, produced a fire hazard which was not to be 
disregarded. 

194 




YALE ROWT>. XKW li.W KX 




ST. EOIO HALL, YALE UXlVEKSrrY, XE\V HAX'EN 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 195 

Meanwhile, every year made the situation worse. The demand for tickets 
before 1900 was so great that ticket speculation became a scandal, and Yale 
men and others who would see the game were robbed by wholesale. Then the 
management adopted the plan of allotting the tickets by drawing, from applica- 
tions which were limited to Yale graduates only, each one being allowed a given 
number of seats. This was five at first, then it was reduced to three ; in the end, 
before relief came, it was reduced to two, and there was fear that it would dimin- 
ish to one, and that ticket holders would have to stand up to save room. 

Yale's athletic managers saw plainly that Yale would have to build some form 
of amphitheater or stadium, as Harvard already bad done, as Princeton was 
planning to do. The perplexity as to how to manage the matter of the co.st 
delayed action. It would never do for the University to finance the thing; it 
seemed a hopeless undertaking from volunteer contributions. For it was plain 
that no mere 50.000-seat structure would answer. The lesson of the growing 
demand for seats was that it must be approximately a doubling of the then 
existing capacity, with allowance for further expansion. The Committee of 
Twenty-one, a body of men appointed, at the instance of the athletic management, 
to look into possibilities, found that a concrete structure seating 50,000, although 
probably too small for future needs, woxdd cost at least $750,000, a sum which 
staggered the committee. In the face of such an ob.stacle, progress was slow. 

Jleaiiwhile, engineers were working on the problem, and it is probable that 
some makeshift or other would have been tried, or perhaps the mighty task of 
financing a million-dollar structure would have been attempted, had not a true 
friend of Yale come to the rescue with an idea that proved the product of 
genius. Charles A. Ferry, a New Haven civil engineer, graduated from the 
Sheffield Scientific School in 1871. always keenly interested in Yale affairs, and in 
close touch with some members of the committee, had become conversant with all 
the i-equirements and difficulties of the problem. He had examined with as 
little enthusiara as had the members the plans submitted to the Committee of 
Twenty-one, most of them hopelessly expensive designs, when something sug- 
gested to him a unique plan. Like all great ideas it was ridiculously simple. 
It was nothing more than to scoop a great elliptical hole out of the ground, throw 
the excavated contents up on the edge for an embankment, and lay out a foot- 
ball gridiron on the levelled bottom of the hole and seats all around it, rising 
in tiers on the inclined edge of the embankment. 

To this idea he applied the test of his engineering knowledge for finding 
out what it would cost. His first result was so suspiciously small as to make him 
distrust his figures. Apparently the thing could be done for only $150,000. 
He went over his estimates again, this time more carefully. He checked the 
work in every possible way. The result was not materially different. Then he 
lost no time in laying his estimates before the Commitee of Twenty-one. Their 
acquaintance with his record as a sound, hard-headed, practical and experienced 
engineer gave him their attention at once. But they also thought he must have 
erred this time. Still, the matter was worth the most careful examination. His 



196 A MODERN HISTORY OP NEW HAVEN 

figures were there, in form that any eugiueer could understand. The others 
went over them. To their astonishment, they failed to find a flaw in them. Ap- 
parently a way had l)een found to build a football amphitheater for something 
less than a fifth of the cost they had been considering. 

But no chances were to be taken with a mere experiment. The plans and 
estimates were submitted to the ablest engineers, and months were spent in 
acidly testing them. The figures held. The plan developed no technical faults. 
The engineers reported back to the committee that they believed in it. The 
committee voted to adopt it. The Ferry vision of an amphitheater such as had 
never been built, and apparently never in any large measure had been con- 
ceived before, entered the first phase of realization. 

II 

With such a plan to arouse enthusiasm, and the financial difficulties of the 
task greatly reduced, it became comparatively easy to make a start. The Coni- 
mittee of Twenty-one, now an incorporated body with authority to make con- 
tracts and acquire property, with a sufficient fund for starting the work, pro- 
ceeded with the task. Its chairman was T. DeWitt Cuyler, Tale 74, of Phila- 
delphia, and its secretary David Daggett, 79, of New Haven. A few years 
])revious to this time the Yale Athletic Association, finding that it would be 
necessary for the University's athletic activities to have more room than it was 
]>ossible to get on the south side of Derby Avenue, had acquired a new tract of 
about 100 acres on the north side, extending along the West River between 
Derby Avenue and Chapel Street. Approximately in the center of this tract, 
where it could be approached with equal facility from Derby Avenue or Chapel 
Street, it was decided to build the football structure. There, early in the summer 
of 1913, the unprecedented task was begun. 

It was the breaking of ground in more sense than one. That great hole in 
the ground which an army of men and horses di-awing "turnpike .shovels" 
began to scoop out looked like anything but a football .stand. The general public, 
which had not been taken into the confidence of the builders, mostly looked on 
to scoff if they noticed at all. Nothing of the sort had ever been attempted 
before. The whole thing seemed in the nature of an experiment. But the 
engineers knew what they were doing. And the master engineer, the father of 
the idea, Mr. Perry himself, was personally in command. He was with the 
work from the very beginning. He remained with it, watching with the 
minutest care its every detail, until the work was crowned with success. He 
had good assistance, but his was the controlling mind from first to last. 

That great and growing hole, covering as it grew the space of twelve and 
one-half acres, was an amazing sight as the summer of 1913 grew old. There 
stood a great confusion of derricks and cement mixers, piles of tile and stone 
and lumber, with men and horses and machines of various sorts creeping around 
thetn in apparently the most aimle.ss sort of wav. That confusion lasted until 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 197 

the coming of winter forced a cessation of the work. It did not clear materially 
when spring came again. But before the work had ceased for the winter the 
lower part of the structure had begun to take a shape intelligible to the eyes of 
one who understood the plan of the work, and that plan was not difficult to 
comprehend. 

The excavation was to be elliptical in the proportions of a football gridiron, 
and to extend about as far beneath the ground level as the embankment rose 
above it. The entrances were to be at the ground level. On each side was to 
be a large gateway, for football teams or vehicles. There were to be thirty 
portals, tunnels through the embankment, arranged at equal intervals all the 
way around the structure, for the entrance and exit of the thousands who should 
occupy the seats. The whole interior of the excavation was to be lined with a 
substantial plating of cement, rising in steps, to which the seats were to be 
bolted. The portals and larger entrances were to be floored with the same 
material. There was to be a cement coping between the lower tier of seats and 
the playing surface, and a cement retaining wall around the foot of the em- 
bankment on the outside of the structure. 

Such, in brief, was the plan. Before the work ceased for 1913, the excavation 
had been finished, the cement construction of the entrance tunnels was well in 
hand and the structure was ready for the interior easing of concrete. It was 
desirable to allow the winter to do its work in settling the newly exposed earth 
and the thrown-up embankment before going further. That embankment, as 
it proved, had over a year in which to settle, and then the engineers found that 
its depression amounted to only a fraction of an inch. It was not a structure 
that was going to slide or cave. 

The following spring, which was the fateful year of 1914, when "the great 
war" broke upon the earth, the work proceeded rapidly. The retaining wall was 
first built, and from then on the structure began to assume form, and soon after, 
comeliness. For the next thing was the grading, and after that the sodding of the 
outer embankment and of the gridiron within. All summer and early fall this 
grass was watered and smoothed and cared for, and by November the turf on 
the playing field was ready to resist even the two hours' strain of striving steel- 
shod feet, resulting from a championship football game. It came out of the 
ordeal in good shape, considering. 

Then there was the cement surfacing of the lower part of the interior and 
the placing of the seats. It was thought best to defer the cement covering of 
the upper half, partly to postpone the heavier part of the work and expense, 
partly to allow the embankment to settle all it possibly could. The apparently 
satisfactory working of the structure without this completion, together with 
the interruption of college athletics by the war, has delayed the completion of the 
cement casing until now. That may, possibly, be a part of the greatly increased 
seating arrangement which may be found necessary in the coming years. 

Yale's football amphitheater, as it stands at present, is a structure covering, 
as has been said, twelve and one-half acres. The base of the excavation is 



198 A MODERN IlLSTURY OF NEW HAVEN 

twenty-seven and one-half feet below the level of Yale's new field. It rises a 
corresponding distance of twenty-six and one-half feet above the entrance level, 
making a total depth of fifty-four feet. Measuring over the outer retaining wall 
the structure is 930 feet long by 750 feet wide. From the crest of the embank- 
ment it is 800 by 600 feet. The gridiron and the level surface inside the seats 
measures 500 by 300 feet. Though the lower part of the excavation extends 
to a depth below ground surface at which si^rings are expected to be found, and 
though the location is not high ground, so carefully has the matter of drainage 
been planned for that never has there been the least trouble with dampness, even 
when using the gridiron soon after a rainstorm. 

The spot is in many ways a jiicturesque one. The longer axis of the ellipse 
points nearly north and south. To the northward, towering West Rock stands 
ever as a watchful sentinel, wliile in tlie western distance rise the hills and woods 
of "Edgewood." long the home of the patron saint of the whole neighborhood. 
From the "parapet" lies spread a view of the city and harbor, while in the other 
direction are rolling country and the Maltby lakes. The appearance of the 
embankment from the distance, and still more on nearer approach, is that of 
a fort, and to imagine that those thirty portals screen great disappearing guns 
is not difficult. 

But such considerations as these have come later. The first thought for the 
football enclosure was that of utility. It must seat many thousands. Sixty 
thousand was the builder's first idea. Tliat number was slightly increased when 
the regular seats were placed, and the press stand, with its accommodation for 
newspaper men and photographers from far and near, added several hundreds 
more. So equipped, the structure seemed more tlian ample for the crowd which 
would come that first year. But long liefore the time for the game with 
Harvard, it was found that graduate applications and public sale would run 
far beyond the more than 60,000 seats provided, and it was necessary to build 
7,000 more seats around the rim. Thus the first game on the new gridiron was 
witnessed, all told, by more than 70,000 people. It was supposed that this large 
crowd was due to the novelty of the thing, and that those temporary seats would 
never be needed again. So, as they marred the symmetry of the upper works, 
they were taken down after the game. But in 1916, when Harvard played in 
New Haven again, the pressure was worse than ever. Not only were the upper 
temporary seats again placed, but extra seating was put in the space within the 
footliall enclosure itself. It is proliable that from 72,000 to 73,000 saw that 
second game with Harvard. From a Yale standpoint, it was wortliy of the 
multitude. 

Accommodation for such gatherings as this places this amphitheater in the 
very front rank of the gathering places of the modern or the ancient world. Of 
old the Colos.seum and the CirciLS Maximus surpassed it, more or less according 
to tradition. We have no accurate means of knowang whether they seated all 
the crowds accorded to them, or whether they seated them all at once. Other 
structures built in England or elsewhere for the accommodation of football 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 199 

crowds have lield more people, liut standing, not sitting. The Yale stand seats 
all whom it receives, and seats them comfortably and advantageously. Other 
colleges in this country are planning to outdo Yale in this, but up to the present 
writing none has provided a structure comfortably seating so many people, and 
no other stadium or amphitheater approximates to the facilities for conveniently 
gathering, seating and safely dispersing a crowd .possessed by that designed by 
Charles A. Ferry for Yale. 

Ill 

The wonder of it has dawned slowly. It was at once recognized to be unique 
among athletic structures. ^Vhat should it be called? It was a "bowl," of 
course, but that term, while it might pass in slang, did not at first meet the 
approval of the academic mind. Stadium it was not, properly. Amphitheater 
was a good old classic term, but too unwieldly. Coliseum was out of the question. 
So for convenience they began to call it "The Bowl." It was expected to be a 
temporary name, but like the temporary seats, it clung, partly from necessity, 
more from fitness. It is interesting to look back and notice how the term has 
gradually taken on dignity, until "The Bowl." spoken wherever Yale football 
is known, has become one of the most honorable of names. 

So has the structure endeared itself, if such a personal description may be 
applied to it. to Yale men and friends of Yale near and far. The first thought 
for it was that it would hold the crowds, surely in safety, more or less in com- 
fort. It was expected, of course, that there would be a wide difference in the 
accommodation it gave them. Those nearest the center were expected to be 
especially favored. Those on the edges — at the skyline — as even the designer 
feared, would greatly need spyglasses. For it was to be remembered that from 
the rear seats at the end of the ellipse to the opposite end of the goal line was 
a physical distance of over 800 feet. In the old stands there were some very 
imdesirable seats. It must inevitably be so in the new one. 

But it has not proved to be so. The facility with Avhieh every play of every 
game could be seen from every seat has been the growing wonder of those who 
have tested the Bowl from all its parts. It is true that those who sit at the 
points nearest the side lines see the players in life size, and are able to recognize 
some of them without field glasses. But it has been a ciuestion whether it was 
better to see the game in that way than it was to have the advantage of the 
greater altitude and see it in miniature. There is an effect, from the upper 
row-s of seats, somewhat like a view from an aeroplane. And with a good glass, 
the doings in the center or at either end of the gridiron are perfectly seen from 
every one of the 65,000 seats. There is not a "blank" in the whole collection. 

The ease with which the greatest crowds in our football history have been 
seated in the Bowl, and the orderliness with which they have been dispersed, have 
more than met the expectations of the builders. There has never been anything 
like a blockade or a .iara. There is a separate entrance and exit for each 2,000 
people, and seats are easy to find. When the game is over, the great multitude 



200 A MODERN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN 

goes its thirty different ways without confusion and without any appearance 
of mass. It is only when one sits in the great Bowl with every seat filled, with 
one solid lining of humanity wherever the eye can reach, that he gets an ade- 
quate impression of the vastness of the assemblage. That, indeed, is a sight long 
to remember. It is in itself a wondrous feature of every great football game. 

For all this, the Bowl has twice failed to hold without a strain as many as 
would see the great games. Of the future one can only guess, but there is every 
prospect that the coming years may early find it totally inadequate in seating 
capacity. In such an event, the designer has a plan. He would build, around 
and over the upper half of the seats, a structure like a theater balcony. He 
believes it possible to construct perhaps 40,000 more seats in such a way that 
all will have a view of the field, and without in any way marring the seats 
already there. This would, however, possibly mar the symmetry of the structure, 
and would of cour.se cause greater congestion of entrances and exits. 

But football does not exhaust the wonders of the Bowl. It has been tested 
in other ways, with surprising results. The open air play had been an institu- 
tion in many other colleges long before the Bowl was built at Yale, and it was 
natural tliat the new structure sliould tempt tlie trial of such a thing at Yale on a 
greater scale than elsewhere. It worked out in the presentation, in May of 
1915, of Euripides' "Iphigenia in Tauris." Some 15,000 people from the Uni- 
versity and from New Haven saw the production, one end of the Bowl and 
gridiron being devoted to it. A stage and sounding board were erected, but 
there were many who doubted that, even -nnth the aid of these, any except those 
nearest the front would be able, in the great open space, to distinguish any of 
the spoken words. "What did happen seemed like a marvel. For the Bowl de- 
veloped the most surprising acoustic effects. The spoken word was heard with a 
distinctness almost uncanny in every one of the seats. 

This was a development which surprised the designer as much as anybody. 
He had anticipated nothing of the sort. He, like most others, had deemed it an 
impossibility that ordinary sounds should reach to the farthest seats. But it 
has proved that there is something about the solid consti'uction, something in, 
the concave formation, which makes possible the reflection of sound, distinctly 
and without confusing echo, to all the seats which face the stage. 

Again, something like a year later, the Bowl had a still more trying test. 
New Haven, then and now, lacked an adequate place for the production of grand 
opera. Everard Thompson, then the manager and promoter of all Yale athletic 
events and many of Yale's nmsical attractions, eagerly seized the opportunity 
which the Bowl offered to arrange for the production of "Wagner's "Die 
Walkuere," with some of the finest of grand opera stars in the east. On a rare 
evening in early June the production was staged, and though less than half 
of the Bowl was used, it was in size such a gathering as New Haven had never 
had before for a musical performance. And again the acoustic effects astonished 
all the observing. The transmission of the music was well nigh perfect. Little 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 201 

of the force or shading was lost, while much was added from the thrill of the 
open air and the charm of a summer evening. 

Then there was the Pageant of 1916, the crowning glory of the Bowl up to 
now. The story of that has already been told. But for the Bowl it would not 
have been possible in anything like its triumphant success. But for the Bowl, 
the people of New Haven and the regions round about it would never have 
participated in it as they did. And nothing in its history so far has so well 
demonstrated the Bowl's greatness. It was a spectacle par excellence, and for 
spectacles, above all, the Bowl is designed. 

But we always return to the game; the game's the thing. For that the Bowl 
was built, and for that it will mostly be used, though its success for other uses 
suggests that many new uses will be found for it. The dedication of the Bowl, 
when Yale met Harvard in 1914, was a tremendous success from viewpoints of 
crowd and spectacle; it was a mournful occasion to those Yale men and their 
friends whose happiness depended on a victory for Yale. It was Harvard's 
privilege to light up the goal posts with red fire on the occasion of that first 
game, and Harvard was ready to improve it. But there came another time. 
Two years later, the story was different. The tables were gloriously turned, 
and the Bowl had a real dedication. 

The interruption of Yale athletics caused by the war made the Bowl a de- 
serted, mournful place in the fall of 1917. Or it would have been, but for the 
army camp hard by, and the omnipresent utility-making of preparation for 
war. More than once in that summer and fall the Bowl served the cause of 
democracy, as it had served many times before, as it will serve unnumbered 
times, no doubt, in the years to come. There is no gathering place within the 
city that has such a meaning for New Haven. In it great multitudes can be 
gathered, entertained, thrilled. All the football games of the seasons of 1915 
and 1916, great and small, were held in it, and opportunity was given to every- 
body to participate. To spend an autumn afternoon in the open air, watching 
some hopeful football team from a smaller college give Yale some excellent train- 
ing for the great game — not infrequently give it a lesson in the vanity of 
human pride — with the thrill of a multitude attending (it is not unusual for 
one of the minor games,' in these days, to have an attendance of 20,000 people 
or more), is an experience that makes life an immensely more valuable thing. 
They come from the far corners of the state as well as from New Haven, some- 
times, to see these minor games, and all are well repaid. It is generally an ex- 
perience for all comers that adds greatly to the joy of living. 

No mention of the Bowl is complete if it omits the part which Everard 
Thompson, who was Yale's governor of the games, in important wa.vs, when the 
Bowl was built, had in its development. He approved of the design from the 
first. His clear eye saw its possibilities from the viewpoint of public accommo- 
dation. When it neared completion in the fall of 1914, he cheerfully essayed 
the task of filling its 63,000 seats. He did his work so well that there were more 
than 70,000 people ready to fill the seats before he knew it. He provided the 



202 A MODERN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN 

seats, too. To prepare and arrange tickets for 70,000 people, to get the tickets 
to them and get them to their seats, was a physical task of no small proportions. 
Mr. Thompson met it. He developed a system that has been the admiration of 
all who have known of it. He handled a staggering situation, and meted out 
justice and .satisfaction to all. 

Nor should mention be omitted of William V. Bedell, who took up the work 
when ilr. Thompson left Yale. The problem of seating and satisfying the 
public who wanted to see the Yale-IIarvard game in 1916 was, if anything, 
more difficult than at any previous time. But Mr. Bedell, in a way all his own, 
solved it so as to win the respect of even the disappointed. 

But after all, the Bowl's growing success, and its promise for the future, 
which is great, redound to the credit of the designer. A quiet, modest man, on 
whose head the years sit lightly, misses few of the events which take place in 
the Bowl.* All of them are a part of tlie dream he dreamed — a part of its 
fulfillment. He cannot afford to miss them. Charles A. Ferry admits that he 
builded better than he knew, but those who know him best believe that his suc- 
cess was due to no accident, no lucky hit of genius. It is true in more wava 
than are dreamed of in our philosophy that 

"The heights by great men reached and kept 

Were not attained by sudden flight ; 
But they, while their companions .slept 

Were toiling upward in the night." 

•The Bowl is now the property of Yale I'niversity. On Febrnarv 15, 1918, Tliomas 
DeWitt Ciiyler, '74. Cliairman of tlie Committee of Twenty-one. formally handed the property, 
wliich np to that time had been the possession of the incorporated Committee, over to Yale. 
The oriijinal cost was supposed to be $?.OO.noO. but more than tliat had been expended on 
it up to the time of transfer. All tlic money had been secured from the subscription of 
graduates and others. 



CHAPTER XXII 
TRANSPORTATION AND COMMUNICATION 

EARLY DEVEUJPMENTS IN TURXPIKES THE MOUTH OF AN INTERESTING CANAl 

STEAMBOAT AND RAILROAD LINES — NEW HAVEN AND THE TELEPHONE 



The swiftness of our twentieth eentnry is best appreciated by looking back- 
ward a little. Only in that way can we understand how many wonderful things 
we are taking as a matter of course. In nothing is this as true as in the matters 
of transporation and communication. And in respect to these, there has been 
in New Haven's history no period to be compared with the past thirty years. 

Yet New Haven and its region thought thirty years ago that they had made 
a marvelous advance, if they looked backward. The city and its surrounding 
towns were wrought out of a trackless wilderness. In 1638 their isolation was 
so real that they deemed the territory of less than a hundred .square miles of 
which New Haven was the center sufficient for the making of a state. Hartford, 
the nearest rival, was a good two days' journey distant, while the nearest 
considerable i)oints to the east or west were as safely far away. But if other 
events had not cjuickly come in to break up New Haven's notion of sufficiency 
unto itself, communication would soon have done it. 

For communication was inevitable. Trails and bridle paths radiated in all 
dii'eetions from New Haven before the colony was a decade old. The people 
would not remain solitary. Expansion and adventure were in the air of the New 
World. The constant growth of new settlements, farther and farther from New 
Haven, made this inevitable. The people had relatives, friends, acquaintances, 
in the other communities. And between these points of interest there must be 
ways. That was the beginning of communication, and later, of transportation. 

The history of an older time has traced the development of this process. 
The trail gave place to the bridle path, the bridle jiath in turn was displaced 
liy the turnpike. And the turnpike was a more ambitious thing than we are 
wont to think. For instance, there was that New Haven-Derby turnpike, notice- 
able because it was the remnant of the old tollgate system which many of those 
now living in New Haven can remember. "When that was projected in 1798, 
a company was formed with a capital stock of $7,520 to build eight miles of 
highway, and received a charter from the legislature. It was not such a won- 

203 



204 A :\rODERN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN 

derful highway, either. It was a gravel roadway that made "causewa.ys" 
through the swamps and bridged the rivers. Road building, as we know it, 
had not then been imported to this country. But the road was good enough 
so tbat they seemed to he warranted in charging people a good, round sum for 
the privilege of traveling over it. Evidently the company made money, too, 
judging from the fact that it clung to the toll privilege until 1888. 

This was, in the first half of the nineteenth century, but one of a dozen or 
more turnpikes which radiated from New Haven, the only means, up to the 
coming of the railroad, of connuon travel. "Well might New Haveners, when 
the last tollgate was abolished, regarding tht-ir railroad and street railway and 
steamboat lines which established communication to and from New Haven at all 
points of the compa.ss, deem that great things had been accomplished, and that 
they had reached the truly modern age. 

We look back from today and smile at their notion that they had arrived. 
Even then, they might have considered their established telegraph, their just 
developing telephone, the prophecy of the electric car which was already in the 
air, and realized their infancy. But if we are inclined to contemn their crude 
development, or scorn their lack of belief in greater achievements ahead, we may 
well regard our wireless, our still imperfect motor vehicle, our inadequately 
realized flying machine, our lack of knowledge of the possibilities of electricity, 
our very unsatisfactory steam and electric railroads, and humbly await a day 
of better things, 

II 

New Haven's transportation development, up to now, has been mainly through 
steamship lines, steam and horse and electric railways. But before the rail- 
road realh- came to New Haven, before the horse railway was thought of, while 
j'et the steamboat was in its begiiniiugs, there came to Connecticut what has 
been called the "canal fever,"' of which New Haven felt very marked effects. 
Canals had been developed in New York State early in the nineteenth century. 
They had, seemingly, proved a success above all other methods of transportation. 
New Haven had the water outlet to the broad sea. If New Haven might have 
canal connection to the northward, reaching into the commercial and industrial 
State of Massachusetts, New Haven commerce would have a great boon. So it 
came about that there was constructed that interesting canal from Farmington 
to New Haven whose traces still remain in the city itself and in the region 
northward all the way to Cheshire and Southington. 

It has mostly been forgotten now. It hardly belongs to the period which this 
history covers. But there are some things about that canal which the present 
generation has forgotten, and they are fascinating ones. Close to a century 
ago it was conceived, and transportation and traveling conditions then were such 
as to make its possibilities appeal to the imagination. The railroad had not come 
to Connecticut. Good roads, as we conceive them now, were dreams only. The 
traveler over the highways that were was an almost constant tribute vielder. 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 205 

The fast post-eoach which covered the distance from New Haveu to Hartford in 
six hours, was the acme of speed. On the other hand, there was the broad river 
Connecticut, free of tollgates, alwajs, except in winter's hibernation, a smooth 
and convenient highway. Rivers, even handicapped by crooks and shoals, were 
ideal highways. Why not make one that should be straight and sufficiently 
deep? 

Such was the condition, and such was growing to be the thought, when early 
in 1822 representative citizens from seventeen towns. New Haven being promi- 
nent among them, met at Farmington and voted to make a preliminary survey 
for a canal and raise one thousand dollars for the purpose. The Farmington 
Canal Company was chartered in the following May. Though it was named for 
Farmington, and though it would appear that the movement started from that 
end, New Haven seems to have been the moving spirit in it. Indeed, there was 
not a little mention of it at the time, particularly at Hartford, as New 
Haven's scheme to rival Hartford as a river port, and have its own river 
reaching from the Sound up into the heart of New England. They said scoff- 
ingly at Hartford, it is reported, that New Haven had a plan to divert the 
waters of the Connecticut from flowing past Hartford, and turn them on to their 
own mud flats, on which, added the jester, their own shipping usually stuck 
fast. 

This canal was to run from the tide waters of New Haven harbor through 
Farmington to Southwick, Massachusetts, with a branch along the Farmington 
River through New Hartford to the north line of Colebrook — which branch, by 
the way, was never built. Some other featiires of the project, as laid out on 
paper, and never appearing anywhere else, materially add to the interest with 
which it may be viewed now. What was dug was a small part of a grand pro- 
ject. The canal was to keep on northward to the state line, there to connect 
with the Hampshire and Hampden Canal (also to be constructed) in Ma.ssa- 
chusetts. That, on its part, was to be continued northward along the west 
bank of the Connecticut River, crossing it at Brattleborough into New Hamp- 
shire, and thence, sometimes in Vermont and sometimes in New Hampshire, 
it was to push up till it made connection with the watei-s of Lake Memphrema- 
gog. From there, naturally, it would be easy to reach the St. Lawrence. New 
Haven was to be made a port only a little less important than an ocean terminal. 
The Erie Canal was to be made to look like a fishing creek. 

There it was — all but the money. The report of the preliminary survey was 
that it would cost $420,698.88. This must have been for the Farmington-New 
Haven part. Of this amount the Mechanics Bank of New Haveu .subscribed 
$200,000. The City of New Haven did not come in at the first, but later sub- 
scribed $100,000. The citizens of New Haven ultimately put down $122,900. 
Financiers in New York City, in the course of the process, had faith enougli in 
the plan to risk $90,000. In Farmington 12.5 shares, or $12,500 were taken. 
The rest, up to a total of $541,400, was made up by small investors along the 
line of the canal. 



206 A MODERN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN 

Aud so the ditch was dug, the lieginning being made at Granby on July 
4, 1825. This seemed a proper occasion for the celebration of the nation's in- 
dependence, and the proposed independence of all primitive and restricted 
means of transportation by the people between New Haven and Farmington. 
Two or three thousand people were present to observe the taking of the first 
spadeful of eartli from the ditch with suital)le ceremony. Captain George Row- 
land navigated a barge up from New Haven — this was a land boat drawn by 
four liorses. The Declaration of Independence was read, and the Hon. Jona- 
than E. Lyman of Northampton, Massachusetts, gave the oration of the day. 
Before that Governor Oliver Woleott made an address and handled the spade 
for the main ceremony. About two years later the last spadeful was taken out 
with less ceremony, and water was let into the canal at Cheshire. Even the in- 
credulous Connecticut Conrant admitted and faithfully recorded that "three 
boats and a camion"' had na^^gated the canal from the Sound as far north as 
Cheshire. 

This was late in November of 1827. Little further seems to have happened 
until the following June. Then, amid great glorification, a canal boat named 
James Hillhouse was launched at Farmington. and that far inland town seemed 
to have realized its dream. At the same time the father of the New Haven 
elms, who had also in a sense been the father of the canal, was suitably honored. 
He was also the first president of the comitany. By this time the rest of the 
digging had been completed, and there was a ditch, soon after navigable, all 
the way from Southwiek Ponds to Long Island Sound. 

The joy of the inhabitants at this cousuramation seems to have been so great 
that about all they would let the canal do for the rest of that yeai' was to 
carry excursion parties. All that sunnner its banks resounded with one glad, 
sweet song. The staunch canal boat James Hillhouse, plainly marked on the 
stern "Farmington Canal," even if it lacked the no less notable inscription 
"For Southwiek and Memphremagog"' which the aforementioned boat on wheels 
carried, made many trips up and down the narrow but gladsome channel bear- 
ing gay parties of merrymakers. Late that fall it seems to have occurred to 
those interested that it was about time to devote the expensive ditch to busi- 
ness, and boats carrying real freight commenced to be towed up and down. 
It became "the port of Farmington." Travelers came that way, and the fame 
of the town spread far. This was only a reflected light from New Haven, to be 
sure, but New Haven, being then in reality what a distinguished engineer later 
called it in so many words, "the key to New England," was content. 

So for three or four years everything went as merrily as a marriage bell with 
one exception — the thing didn't pay. This may not have seemed a very es- 
sential drawback to anyone along the line except the comparative few who 
liad invested money, but they began to show concern. The historian casually 
remarks that as early as 1828 "the company labored under great embarrassment 
from the want of funds, and suffered from freshets and from the work of ma- 
licious individuals." Funds began to fail considerably before the essential con- 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 



207 



struction was completed. About this time the city of New Haven came to the 
hoped for rescue witli its subscription of $100,000, but that did not sufSee. A 
financial alliance was made with the Hampshire and Hampden company of 
Massachusetts. In one way and another funds were found to complete the 
canal to Westfield, and then to the Connecticut River. But it was a new venture, 
and the managers lacked experience. The railroads were rivals rather than 
auxiliaries, and the Connecticut River still flowed on its independent way. 

The upshot of it all was the formation of the New Haven and Northampton 
Company in 1836. It took over all the stock of the Parmington Canal Com- 
pany, and for the following ten years struggled, with all the added capital it 
could gather, to make a go with the canal. But in 183S the railroad was opened 
between New Haven and Hartford, and in 1846 the New Haven and Northamp- 
ton Company was in self defense forced to obtain a charter for a railroad. It 
was a comparatively simple mattei- to lay rails on the towpath of the canal, and 
in 1848 this was clone as far as Plainville. Presently trains were running as 
far as Farmington, and a few years later the road was completed to Northamp- 
ton. 

Ill 

The short-lived canal went dry. of course, soon after the railroad came, ex- 
cept at points where the water would not readily run off. There it remained 
an intermittent waterway, according as the season was dry or wet. One idly 
wonders how many mosquitoes the old ditch bred in its da.v, after it had ceased 
to serve its original purpose. It was utilized, as far as the borders of New 
Haven, as a subway for the railway. But in the upper part of Hamdeu, jiar- 
tieularly Mount Carmel, it has been up to the present time an eyesore and at 
times a nuisance. The money of a few dug it ; the many have been obliged to 
fill it up at their own expen.se. As a canal, it is mostly gone now, but its marks 
remain in many places. 

The development of water transportation from and to New Haven consider- 
ably antedated the coming of the railroads. There is mention of the penetration 
of Robert Fulton's triumph to this port as early as 1815. Some nine years later 
the New Haven Steamboat Company was chartered to run a line to New York, 
and soon after 1824 three boats were running regularly. There was no railroad 
to New York until 1844. so a working agreement between the Hartford and 
New Haven Railroad and the New Haven and New York steamboat line was de- 
sirable. It was made in 1838. Meanwhile, other lines had been opened, con- 
spicuous among them the Starin and the Propeller lines. There was marked 
competition to get the comparatively few passengers of those days, so that the 
rate of fare from New Haven to New York fell to twenty-five cents, and even, 
for a short time, to half of that. This did not last long. The opposition lines 
either took up the more profitable business of carrying freight, or formed a 
working agreement. The New Haven Steamboat Company, now for a score of 
years and more an ad.iunct of the railroad, has been the steady, reliable means 



208 A MODERN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN 

of water trausporation to New York. Of late years it has had practically the 
whole business. New Haven's maritime trausporation has not tended to increase. 
Witli opportunities surpassing those of Bridgeport, New London or Stonington, 
it has remained in the somewhat narrow transportation channel of a single line 
to New York. Other ports have branched in many directions, notably in the 
matter of excursion or pleasure boats. New Haven, and this means New Haven 
people, have failed of support for shipping of this sort. In the nineties, there 
was now and then a small excursion steamer to Bridgeport, to some of the Bran- 
ford shore resorts or the "Thimbles," or now and then to a Long Island point. 
But their life vva.s short. Between 1910 and 1915 Lucien Sandei-son, as a large 
part of the Long Island Navigation Company, tried to maintain a daily line, 
for about three months each summer, between New Haven and Port Jeiferson, 
Long Island. He had a most comfortable and attractive vessel, the New Elm 
City, competent to carry passengers, freight and the far reaching automobile. 
But the suppoi't was, for most of the time, too slight to balance the expense, 
and in 1915 the venture was abandoned. "When the war came, Mr. Sanderson 
sold the steamer. Since then, as for some time before, the chief water excursion 
excitement of the people of New Haven has been the tempestuous voyage be- 
tween Lighthouse Point and Savin Rock. 

In the year 1840, there were 117 miles of railroad in the state of Connecticut, 
of whicli the only road touching New Haven, that running between this city 
and Hartford, constituted about one-third. This road was opened in 1836, hav- 
ing been chartered in 1833. As has been said, steamboat connection made it 
continuous to New York. Railroading was in its infancy, and was a somewhat 
precarious experiment, not cordially trusted by either financiers or travelers. 
This may account for the fact that not until 1844 was a line built on to New 
York. Meanwhile, as we have seen, the Northampton line had been hastened 
into existence by the canal. 

That was the beginning of the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad. 
The building of the line to New London followed hard after. Then there was 
the connection to Derby and with the Berksliire division from Bridgeport north- 
ward. The "Air Line," which was supposed to connect New York with Boston 
by such a route as the crow would take, came along shortly after. This com- 
pleted New Haven's railroad radiation with lines under at least six different 
ownerships. The amalgamation which followed was inevitable. It was about 
1872 that the railroad became the "Consolidated," though the absorption into 
it of all the lines touching New Haven was not complete until a little after 
that. 

There was a contest for a time as to the center of this system. Between the 
struggles of the New York and Hartford and Boston financial interests for the 
honor and advantage of being the headquarters of the company its heads were 
fain to compromise on New Haven. In spite of all that the jealous terminals or 
even Hartford could do about it, it became, by almost common acceptance, the 
"New Haven road." There was a more than accidental or sentimental reason 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 209 

for this. New Haven is the key to the system. It is an important part, and 
will continue and increase to be. Freight will here be transferred from water 
to rail eomnnication, and New Haven is the key which unlocks the ways to 
western Connecticut, ^Massachusetts, Vermont. Lake Champlain and the St. Law- 
rence, northern and northeastern New York, Boston, Maine and Halifax. So 
in New Haven the " Con.solidated " road — the title is mostly displaced by "New 
Haven" now — erected its $400,000 central office building, and will some day, 
New Haven hopes, erect its million-dollar home station. 

The railroads which this system now operates, or with which it is affiliated, 
have a mileage, if the Boston & Maine is counted in, of exceeding 3,000 miles. 
They cover every part of the states of Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode 
Island, and extend through the most important part of Maine. The three states 
tirst mentioned have an area of 14,5.5.5 miles. Their population at present is 
estimated as approaching six millions of people. Of these a million or more 
are employed in manufacturing, the total of their annual wage is over six 
hundred millions of dollars, and the annual valiie of what they produce is only 
a little short of two billions of dollars. Most of these people, much of their prod- 
uct, the system of railroads which centers in New Haven is called on to move. 
It is the most congested, severely tried, complex system in America. Such are 
the facilities of this system — or such they were before abnormal conditions 
brought it close to paralysis with the breaking of the great war — that freight 
could be brought to New Haven from the farthest bounds of the nation and from 
other countries of North America, or distributed from the center to any part 
of the continent, without change of cars or rehandling of packages. 

iMore than a decade ago, with all the main lines double-tracked, the railroad 
four-tracked the line from New Haven to New York. This was followed, a few 
years later, by the electrification of the New York system. It was the intention 
to continue this in the direction of Boston, as well as to extend the four-track 
lines, but many plans have been interrupted in the past year or two. Among 
these was the electrification of some of the other lines leading out of New Haven. 

Nobody guesses, in these days, much about the future of railroad ownership 
or management. But whatever it shall be, New Haven's situation assures to it 
an increasingly important place in that commerce which the railroad brings. Its 
harbor is being steadily improved, though much remains to be done. Into and 
out of it go more than 45,000 vessels a year, bearing treasure worth $350,000,000. 
Among the items are such things as a billion and a quarter tons of coal, 
220,000,000 tons of iron, 1,400,000 feet of lumber, almost 100,000 tons of oysters, 
140,000 tons of miscellaneous merchandise. The railroads that pass out of New 
Haven carry in a present normal year approximatt^ly a billion tons of mer- 
chandise, rolling on 120,000 cars, and bring in about half as much. 

The past three decades have been the period of modern street railway de- 
velopment in New Haven. In 1888 there were five lines of horse railways in the 
city. The fii-st of these to be Iniilt was the Fair Haven and Westville, which 
connected the far corners of the town about 1860. That was a toilsome trip of 



210 A MODERN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN 

almost five miles, and a great achievement of local transportation. It long re- 
mained the important street railway of the city, and still is one of the main 
arteries. In the following five years West Haven became sufficiently important, 
and Savin Rock so attractive, as to demand a second car line. The same year 
a line was constructed out Whitney Avenue past the lake and on, soon after, 
to Centerville. It was manufacturing development that demanded this. Then 
came the State Street line in 1868. and the line to Allingtown, afterward known 
as the Sylvan Avenue line, in 1872. The Dixwell Avenue line was built a few 
years later. 

Then the ultimate seemed to be accomplished, and New Haven did nothing 
more with street railways, except to moderately extend these lines as the traffic 
demands grew, until 1891. Then dawned the electric era. The first electric 
line in New Haven was practically new road, though it followed the State Street 
line from the Green as far as the corner of State and James streets. Thence it 
ran down James to Lamberton, out Lamberton to Ferry and thence to the foot 
of Ferry. Out of this came, shortly after, the extension to IMorris Cove, then to 
Lighthouse Point. The first part of this road, equipped with the then successful 
trolley (a preliminary experiment with storage battery cars liaving proved a 
failure), wa.s opened about 1891. The old West Haven line, with some improved 
connections, wa.s about this time acquired by a company of which Israel A. 
Kelsey was the moving spirit. The lines already operated were electrified, and 
new lines were built from City Point through the center and out Winchester 
Avenue to the great factory. In connection with this, about 1896, the Edge- 
wood Avenue line was built, entering Westville over a continuation of what had 
been Martin Street, now renamed, all the way from its beginning at Park Street, 
between Chapel and Elm, to its ending at Forest Street, Edgewood Avenue. The 
Fair Haven and Westville soon followed after this with electrification. Its 
line, some years after that, was extended from Fair Haven east up through 
North Haven to Wallingford, where a connection had alread.y been made with 
Moriden. 

The other developments were mostly those of expansion. Fair Haven and 
Westville lines had been built on East and West Chapel streets before the road's 
absorption in the Connecticut system. The Wliitney Avenue line was extended, 
in 1902-4, on from Centerville to Mount Carmel, and then to Waterbury by 
way of Cheshire. Previous to this time a new line had been built to Derby, pass- 
ing by Yale Field, and in 1904-5 this was carried on through Ansonia, Seymour, 
Beacon Falls and Naugatuck to connect with the Waterbury line. The Con- 
necticut Company had absorljcd the whole system in the meantime, and soon 
it also took in the New Haven connections of the Connecticut Railway and 
Lighting Company. This gave New Haven connection with Milford, Stratford 
and Bridgeport and the intervening shore resorts. Along the east shore from 
New Haven there was a line through East Haven, Short Beach and Double 
Beach and Pine Orchard to Branford and Stony Creek. Finally came the Shore 
Line Electric Railway, then and still an independent company, giving New 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 211 

Haven continuous trolley coiineetion with North Branford, Guilford, Madison 
and the other towrus along the shore as far as the Connecticut River, running 
also up the river as far as Essex and Chester. 

One may travel now, by way of New Haven, continuously by trolley from 
New York to Boston. Or again by way of New Haven, he may go from New 
York' along the Connecticut shore to New London or Stonington, then, turning 
northward, go on to Boston by way of Putnam and Worcester. New Haven 
thus becomes one of the most important trolley centers in the east, and seems 
destined to grow in importance with the growth toward perfection (a growth 
just at present greatly to be desired) of the system of electric railway trans- 
portation. New Haven's trolleys connect with Bridgeport and the intervening 
towns ; with Watcrbury and intervening towns by two routes, via Derby and 
Cheshire; with ^Meriden, with Hartford, with all the towns to the northeast and 
east of the city. They form the pojiular and convenient pleasure and business 
route to and from the city, and make a large part of its life and commerce. 

IV 

But the messengers l)y water or by rail have proved too slow for this swift 
age. Other means of communication have materially contributed to the strength 
and efficiency of the modern New Haven, and in their development the city has 
had a peculiar and important jiart. The electric telegraph had come to New 
Haven, as to other eastei-n conniiunities, at about equal pace with the railroad. 
The Atlantic cable, which came within a few decades afterward, has an interest, 
if not for New Haven specifically, at least for the New Haven district, for the 
father of Cyrus West Field, who laid the cable, was born in ]Madison when it was 
East Guilford, and the Field connection with this section was more or less closely 
continued until recent years. New Haven had the telegraph service in increas- 
ing extent, and has it more than ever now. Its nerves of wires go to all the 
world, and are increasingly used to run its business and serve the needs of all 
its people. 

In the early development of another connuunication medium of prime im- 
portance New Haven had a conspicuous and continuing part. Neither Connecti- 
cut nor New Haven had anything to do, so far as is known, with the invention 
of the telephone, but here, as many well know, was established the first com- 
mercially operated, working telephone exchange, forty years ago. New Haven 
was the first community to make the telephone a reality. 

So common an instrument of everyday life is the telephone now, and so 
familiar a textbook is its directory, that the first list of subscribers of the "New 
Haven District Telephone Company" is to most persons a genuine curiosity. 
When early in 1877 the Connecticut legislature granted a charter to George W. 
Coy to establish a telephone company in New Haven, with a capital of $5,000, 
the state did not take particular notice. Plere Avas a move by some visionary. 
But in the first month of the following year Mr. Coy and his associates com- 



212 A MODERN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN 

pleted plans for their New Haven service, and the exchange was opened in a 
store on the first floor of the Boardman Building, at the comer of State and 
Chapel streets, on P'ebruary 21, 1878. The switchboard was less of an affair 
than many a business concern now has for its department exchange. There 
were just forty-seven subscribers, and their names were printed in large type 
on one side of a seven by nine sheet of paper. No numbers were attached. • The 
"centrals" — there must have been a force of two of them, one for night and 
one for day— remembered without difficulty how to ''plug in" for their less than 
half a hundred subscribers, and it is unlikely that the wires were very busy in 
those first few moutlis. It was a business institution mostly. The list included 
twelve residences, three physicians, two dentists, eight "miscellaneous," seven- 
teen stores, factories and the like, four meat and fish markets, two hack and 
boarding stables. It might be considered in a sense an honor roll, and it is well 
to record it here: 

Residences — Rev. John E. Todd, J. B. Carrington, H. B. Bigelow, C. W. 
Seranton, George W. Coy, G. L. Ferris. H. P. Frost, M. F. Tyler, I. H. Bromley, 
George E. Thompson, Walter Lewis. 

Physicians— Dr. E. L. R. Thompson. Dr. A. E. Winchell, Dr. C. S. Thomp- 
son, Fair Haven. 

Dentists— Dr. E. S. Gaylord, Dr. R. F. Burwell. 

Miscellaneous — Mercantile Club, F. V. McDonald Yale News, Police Office, 
Postoffice, Quinnipiac Club, Register Publishing Company, Smedley Brothers 
& Company, M. F. Tj'ler Law Chambers. 

Stores, Factories, etc. — C. A. Dorman, Stone & Chidsey, New Haven Flour 
Company, State Street, Congress Avenue, Grand Street and Fair Haven stores, 
English & Mersiek, New Haven Folding Chair Company, H. Hooker & Com- 
pany, W. A. Ensign & Son, H. B. Bigelow & Company. C. S. Mersiek & Com- 
pany, Spencer & ^Matthews, Paul Roessler, E. S. Wlieeler & Company, Rolling 
Mill Company, Apothecaries' Hall, E. A. Gessner, American Tea Company. 

Meat and Fish Markets— W. H. Hitchings, City Market; George E. Lum, 
City Market, A. Foote & Company, Strong, Hart & Company. 

Hack and Boarding Stables — Cruttenden & Carter, Barker & Ransom. 

This was a start, but not a paying one. The nature of the list of subscribers 
might indicate that a few of the substantial citizens of New Haven took the 
telephone seriously, Ijut this was not a support on which a profitable business 
could be maintained. Something must be done to increase the income, and the 
managers sent out a thousand circulars explaining the service in detail, and 
appealing to New Haven for support. It is related that out of that effort was 
realized a net result of one new contract, even at the very moderate rates then 
prevailing. 

The switchboard, which was operated at first only between six a. m. and 
two a. m., was in the beginning a very crude affair. Making a connection with 
a subscriber was not a rapid process, and when three connections had been made, 
that ended the extent of communication until somebody rang off. "Wire's 



AND EASTEKN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 213 

iSusy" would have been au almost constant condition but for the fact that 
people had not learned how to use the thing, and conversations, compared with 
now, were brief and far between. Aside from this, connections were bad, the 
use of the instrument difScult and results often indistinct and unsatisfactory. 
It is almost impossible for one who knows the telephone only as it is today, with 
its prompt, easy and accurate service, to imagine what that primitive, pioneer 
system was like. 

But we have before us now abundant proof that it wasn't a failure. It lived 
because it had a mission. It won success by deserving it. And New Haven 
remained the scene of its development and growth. Those who had an interest 
in the success of the telephone as an instrument, we may suppose, carefully 
watched over the matter of its working in those early days, but the success of 
the business institution which has served the people of Connecticut for forty 
years is due to the ability and hard work of citizens of New Haven. George 
W. Coy, to whom the first charter was granted, is not easily recalled. He early 
associated with him Herrick P. Frost and "Walter A. Lewis, both of New Haven. 
But the man at the practical end in those first days was John W. Ladd. He 
was plant man then, and he is the only man in the company's service now 
who lias been with it from the beginning. He is now general claim agent. 

Once started, the business grew apace. It was not long before the scope of 
the company was enlarged beyond the New Haven district, Hartford, Bridge- 
port, Middletowai, Meriden and New Britain being included in the circuit. About 
that time it became necessary for the concern to have more adequate quarters, 
which it secured in the Ford Building across the street. As early as 1880 a 
union was made with the Western Union Telegraph Company, and the name 
was changed to the Connecticut Telephone Company. In 1888 the company 
secured land on Court Street and commenced the erection of the building which 
for nearly thirty years served as its central exchange and general oifices. In 
1890, with a service list of 3,000 subscribers, the Southern New England Tele- 
phone Company was incorporated. In the course of time this became a con- 
stituent part of the Bell system, but it has largely retained its New Haven 
directorate, and almost entirely its New Haven management. 

A few figures of contrast may best show at once the growth of forty 
years and the size of the communication service which gives New Haven 
peculiar distinction in the telephone history of America. That single exchange 
of 1878 has grown to sixty-nine, from which are served the people of 695 cities, 
towns or villages in and near this state. The forty-seven subscribers, with their 
fifty stations, have grovm to exceed 130,000, who use 146,164 telephones, and 
make as high as 705,564 calls a day. In place of the single sheet, containing on 
one side all the patrons, is a closely printed volume of 420 pages, each of them 
larger than that sheet. There is not a town in this state, and there is hardly 
a hamlet, that is not reached by the universal wires. In New Haven itself, the 
forty-seven subscribers have grown to exceed 15,500. 

Of the thirteen towns historically considered here, ten have their independent 



214 A MODERN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN 

telephone exchanges. From the New Haven central district are served West 
Haven, Woodbridge, Hamdeu, Mount Carmel and North Haven. Orange has 
its central for that part of the town that is out of West Haven. Wallingford 
and Meriden each serve their towns. The Brauford division takes care of Bran- 
ford and North Branford, which includes a part of Northford, the other part 
o-oing direct to New Haven. East Haven is mainly limited to the town. 
Cheshire has its own central. So have Guilford and Madison. 

The $5,000 capital which seems to have sufficed the company in 1878 has 
grown to $12,000,000, and 1917 saw an increase of $1,000,000. The wire mileage 
of the company at the end of 1917 was 4:39,919, and 41,705 had been added in 
that year. The net income for that year was $810,733.21, of which $770,000 
went to the stockliolders in dividends, leaving .$40,733.21 to he added to the 
company's surplus. That now amounts to $610,996.33. 

These outside towns arc well supplied with telephones, for it has been the 
policy of the company to give service at a price which sliould make it possible, 
to have a telephone in almost eveiy home. In the cit^ of Meriden there are 
2,820 subscribci's. Walliugfovd has 1,050. That part of Orange which is strictly 
rural has 117, the greater number of the telephones of the town being, of course, 
in West Haven, which is a division of the New Haven system. The Branford 
exchange has 827 subscribers, taking in Stony Creek and the shore resorts, to- 
gether with North Branford. Cheshire has 279 telephones. East Haven lists 
234. Guilford was 386 sulisciil)ers. scattered all the way from Guilford Point to 
the Durham line on the north, and IMadison, with an even longer stretch from 
shore to north end, has 317. It should be said here that nothing that has come 
to these towns in the last two decades, with the possible exception of the rural 
free delivery, has so bridged their isolation and changed their character as has 
the telephone. 

Several years ago it became apparent to the management that the company 
would soon outgrow even the commodious quarters built for it on Court Street in 
1889. Late in 1916 work was begun on a new building adjoining the old one, 
and that, now completed, towers seven stories above the old building. The 
removal to these new quarters was effected in the early part of 1918. 

]\Iany changes have come to the management of the company since those 
pioneer days of 1878. Outside capital has come in to some extent, and telephone 
experts have come from other points to handle the phenomenally growing busi- 
ness and meet its problems, but the management has continued to be essentially 
New Haven. In 1916 John W. Ailing, who had been its president for many 
years, retired, and James T. Moran, its able general manager, was moved 
up to the presidency. At the same time Harry 0. Knight, one of the ablest of 
the younger members of the institution, and a citizen in whom New Haven de- 
lights, was made vice president and general manager. The other officers at 
present are : 

Secretary and treasurer, Charles B. Doolittle ; assistant seeretaiy and assist- 
ant treasurer, Clinton J. Benjamin ; general auditor, Ellis B. Baker, Jr. ; chief 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 215 

engineer, Edwai-d II. Everit; general commercial sm^erinteudent, Johnstone 
D. Veitch; general superintendent of plant, Ernest L. Simonds; general super- 
intendent of traffic, Frank L. Moore ; general agent, Frederick P. Lewis ; general 
claim agent, John W. Ladd. 



These are efficient means of transportation and communication, but New 
Haven still has dreams. It has seen, in forty years, the wonder of the telephone 
grow into a commonplace. It has seen the network of wires which used to he 
the material symbol of electric communication of telegraph and telephone almost 
entirely disappear — for New Haven has buried them, to the general safety and 
welfare. It has seen, in not more than a decade and a half, the universal motor 
vehicle expand from a faddish experiment to a utility. It has seen the once mar- 
velous wireless telegraph reduced to the plaything of a schoolboy, and one time 
a common thing over many of the houses of the city. What wonder if it looks 
forward to the time when all present means of communication shall be made 
flat and stale and prosaic by the airship? That, indeed, would be a much less 
wonderful fulfillment of promise than the fathers of the generation now young 
have seen in thirty years. 



CHAPTER XXIII 
THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION 

NEW HAVEN AND THE MELTING POT RACES REPRESENTED AND THEIR DISTRIBUTION 

IN THE CITY THE PROCESS OF ASSIMILATION^ IN NEW HAVEN AND THE ADJOIN- 
ING TOWNS 



New Haven was settled by good, straight, English stock. The people on the 
good ship Hector were not from one village, by any means, but they were in a 
literal sense fellow countrymen if not neighbors, and there was much less of a 
mixture of origin than on the ^Mayflower. They did not for many years, even 
for several generations, think of drawing any race lines. They welcomed to their 
new community all who were willing to adopt their way of worshipping God and 
their form of religious government. That was a stricter exelusiveness than 
any race lines could have made, but they did not stop to think of it. It was pretty 
well understood so, however, by all who would come here. The experience of 
the Quakers, and later the followers of some other alien beliefs, in other New 
England colonies was such as to warn "heretics" not to experiment with New 
Haven. 

So the seventeenth century and the eighteenth century came and went, 
and even the nineteenth century found New Haven a community of well de- 
fined Engli.sh stock. The fact that the 5,085 people of New Haven in 1756 had 
increased to only 8,327 in 1820 would appear to be fairly conclusive proof that 
most of the increase had come from home stock, not from immigration. Few 
thought of such a thing as immigration, in fact. Newcomers were welcome, for 
there was much room, and the town needed people. But few of them were 
strangers. None were aliens, as we have come to nse the word. 

There did begin, however, in the decade following 1820, an immigration 
movement. Our wars for independence had come to a successful close, and 
peace seemed ahead. Prosperity blessed the land. New Haven was in some 
senses the first station beyond the great New York port of entry. The real tide 
of Irish immigration did not begin, indeed, until after the great potato famine 
of 1842-44, but previous to that time a few of the lovers of liberty had found 
their way to this famed land of the free. Being here, it was natural that they 
should seek out such a truly free community as New Haven. 

216 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 217 

It would be the delight of the statistician to trace in detail the immigi-ant 
development of New Haven. It was at fii-st so gi-adual that few noticed it until 
they found themselves crowded by strange newcomers, found the old and once 
aristocratic sections of the city altered in unexpected ways. It was late in the 
nineteenth century, however, that New Haven awoke to the fact that it was 
a Babel— awoke with more or less alann. For be it known that there had entered 
into the New Haven society, in the course of the first two centuries of its life, 
a spirit of aristocracy. It had developed quite early, if one takes the trouble 
to trace it. It was, as we have seen, a most exclusive state which Davenport and 
Eaton hoped to establish and maintain. Its citizens should be only the "elect" 
by the religious test. The air of the place was to be made unhealthy for others. 
They did not, indeed, succeed in building up just such an aristocracy as that. 
The heterodox, as the first purists would have regarded them, did get in. Yet 
there is a certain pride of birth, an ancestral snobbishness wholly unbecoming 
the comparative youth of the country, that has become characteristic of New 
England. And New Haven is, despite the greater distinction in that respect 
which has lieen accorded to some other communities, a truly New England town. 

There was a certain irony, then, in the fact that New Haven was destined 
to be emphatically a "melting pot.'' The typically New England community, 
with all its pride of English origin and colonial tradition, with its presumption 
to a sort of Americanism which exists mainly by aid of the imagination, has come, 
in the past three decades, to be one of the most striking illustrations in America 
of the process of making Americans out of the raw material. For though of 
course New Haven displays nothing like the mass of the larger centers of popu- 
lation, it does present a clearer example of the process than can be found else- 
where. The background is sharper and the air is clearer. And let it be said here, 
to the credit of New Haven and the men and women of vision who consciously 
guide the making of New Englanders out of those who come here from all lands 
of the earth, that the process is in a conspicvious degree a success. 

It should also be noted, withal in justice, that not all of the prideful New 
Englanders have taken the change gracefully. There was, in the years before 
the older residents yielded to the inevitable, much scoi'uful talk of "foreigners," 
much disgruntled shifting of residence in the hope of getting permanently out 
of their zone. There has been much complaint of the mingling of "classes" 
in the schools, and some degree of success in the effort to establish residence 
districts where the superior young Americans should not be compelled to asso- 
ciate with these "foreigners." But those of discernment have observed that 
the effect of the earnest struggles for education of those who welcome their 
New AYorld jn-ivileges has had a stimulating rather than a baleful effect on self- 
sufficient young scions of the "old stock," and learned the wisdom of holding 
their peace. 

II 

It was not until after the census of 1840 that New Haven took what could 
be called a spurt in population. The census figures for both 1830 and 1840 



218 A MODERN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN 

had sliown a healthy increase. It was in 1810, it will be remembered, that 
New Haven's population figures first made for it the decided claim of first city 
of the state. The 6,967 of that year had become 8,327 in 1820, had grown to 
10,678 in 1830 and 14,390 in 1810. Then, in 1850, New Haven first showed the 
effect of immigration. The town's 20,338 of that year included 3,697 of what 
the census discriminators are pleased to call foreign born. These were mostly 

Irish, no doubt. 

This proportion of aliens grew gradually, not alarmingly, as we now view 
immigration increase, in the decade from 1850 to 1860. The census that year 
revealed 10,615 foreigners in a total of 29,267. It may well have disturbed the 
exclusive New Englauders not a little to discover over 27 per cent of aliens 
in their midst. They did lament about it more or less, as we know. But of 
the 10,645 who had come by that time, 7,391 were Irish. They had come to 
escape famine, it was understood. Mere human sympathy must repress any 
protest at such a process of humanity. There were, to be sure, 1,842 Ger- 
mans and Swedes, and 1,412 of all other races— we do not now know just how 
many that meajit — in the city in 1860. 

Ten years more, and tlie proportion of the foreign born had not only 
slightly increased, but it had become slightly more variegated in character. 
There were 14.346 aliens in 1870. Again the Irish markedly led, though their 
increase was not material. They had, in that census, 9,601. Here for the 
first time we have the English and Scotch reckoned as "immigrants" or for- 
eigners — 1,087 of them. Of (iermans and Swedes there were that year 2,423, 
while the "all others" had slightly dropped to 1,235. The percentage of the 
foreign born to tlie total population was that year 28.2. 

The census of 1880 for the first time revealed in New Haven a warning of 
the Italian invasion whicli has in the years since disturbed a good many citizens 
too much. In a total which had by that time grown to 14,346 there were 102 
credited to Italy. The influx from Ireland had practicality stopped, showing 
only 29 increase over the figures for 1870. The increase had come mostly from 
Germany and Sweden, from England and Scotland, which together .showed 3,160 
more than ten years earlier. The unclassified had grown to 1,776. But New 
Haven's total population that year was 62,882. The percentage of aliens to 
natives was thereby lowered to 24.9 — a marked decrease. 

But the real Italian invasion began in the following decade. The year 
1890 found 1,876 of them in New Haven who had not been born there. That 
in itself, however, was not so startling; the increase of Germans and Swedes 
had been much greater — from 2,802 to 5,514. The Irish, also, had increased 
their number almost a thousand, and still led with double the number of any 
other nationality. The English and Scotch were still sending along a good 
number, though their figures had dropped below the Italian. This year revealed 
for fhe first time the rapid influx of Russians, which in New Haven's case 
means the people more specifically designated as Russian Jews. There were 
1,160 of them in New Haven then. The total number of foreign born in 1890 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 219 

was 10,574 out of au entire population of 81,298, or a perceutago of 28.2, the 
equal of that of two decades later. 

All innnigration boomed along merrily in the deeade from 1890 to 1900. 
Tho Irish, to he sure, seemed to have stopped coming, and though they still led 
the list, had dropped their total to 10,491. The English and Scotch showed a 
reasonable increase to 1,912. The Germans and Swedes jumped to 6,119. This 
was the decade of large Italian arrival, for their number had increased to 5.262. 
The Russian Jews had done well, however, with 3,193. There was an impressive 
showing of 3.825 "'all others." The total population of New Haven then was 
108,027, and the percentage of foreign to native had risen to 28.5. 

But the.se figures inadequately represent the population proportions of New 
Haven by the time the la.st census was reached. While tlie melting jtot process 
had been going on since before 1860, there had also been a steady increase of 
what is eommonlj- regarded as foreign population. For there was a population 
technically classified by the census takers a.s "native, but of foreign or mixed 
parentage," which w^as larger than the strictly foreign born population found 
in 1910. It is time, however, to reckon a wider variety of nationalities. The 
census of 1910 classifies fifteen principal nativities. It groups Indian, Chinese 
and Japanese, in addition to negro. Its "all others," therefore, must include 
some thirty other languages and dialects which were known to be represented 
in New Haven by this time. 

Other estimates, more recent than that of the census of 1910, luive been made 
of the number and distribution of the representatives of the races and languages 
in New Haven. But the census figures are the only ones that present with any 
satisfying reliability the comparisons desired. The so-called illiteracy restric- 
tion of Congress, and still more the great war, had the effect of checking innni- 
gration about the middle of 1914, so that figures as of 1910 are, with the excep- 
tion of the increase by birth rate, approximately illustrative of conditions at 
this writing. It will be of interest, then, to notice what the census of 1910 
revealed as to the makeup of New Haven's population. 

There were 133,605 persons in New Haven at that time. It is known that 
the population of the city has grown, at least temporarily, very rapidly in some 
of the years since. The increase has not come from immigi-ation, but from the 
establishment here of certain great industries, and the enlargement of those 
already here, for the manufacture of war material. This increase may be 
assumed to be largely of what we should call "native" population. Various 
guesses have been made as to its total, but most of them are as inconclusive as 
the answers which, short of the census of 1920, will be made to the question 
whether New Haven still is, in population, the largest city in Connecticut. A 
conservative estimate is that New Haven had 175,000 inhabitants early in 1918. 

However, 32.2 per cent of the people of New Haven in 1910 were foreign 
born, the largest percentage at any time in its history. The number was 42,884. 
These came from various lands and tongues as follows : Austria, 1,109 ; Canada 
—French, 461; Canada— other, 855; Denmark, 265; England, 1,867; France. 



220 A MODERN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN 

160; Germany, 4,114; Hungary, 473; Ireland, 9,004; Italy, 13,159; Norway, 
207; Russia, 7,9S0; Scotland, 724; Sweden, 1,446; Turkey, 186; China, Japan 
and India, 100; all other foreign countries, 774. 

This totid of 42,884 must be taken with the larger number of 49,434 of 
inhabitants called native, but of foreign or mixed parentage. Either figure 
.stands in somewhat startling contrast to the mere 37,726 reckoned "native 
white, of native parentage," and the total of the two, 87,160, is an ominous 
comparison, if one chooses so to regard it, with the considerably less than half 
of that which still remains as native stock in New Haven. One may observe, 
with or without emotion, according to his degree of accurate knowledge, that a 
tenth of the people of New Haven were born in Italy, and that rather more 
than a fifth of them may be called Italian. Probably one-sixth of them are 
Irish, but that no longer jars the old. resident. Con.siderably more than one in 
each ten is a Russian, and of course the number of those of the Hebrew race 
and Jewish faith is considerably more than that. Recent events give a new 
significance to the fact that 1,109 of those found in New Haven in 1910 were 
born in Austria. Moreover, the number of Germans newly arrived in 1910 
suggests that the Teutonic popidation of New Haven just previous to the out- 
break of the war was much greater than might have been inferred from the 
city's slight trouble with enemy aliens. The scattering nations not classified in 
the above list are, of course, negligible. The problem, if any problem is pre- 
sented, is with those peoples which have large representation. 

They have had a large influence on the social arrangement of New Haven, 
as has been indicated. Naturally, they have been gregarious. New Haven, like 
all cities which have felt the surging of the alien tide, has its Ghetto, its ' ' Little 
Italy," its "New Poland"' and its own Lithuania. The Italians, most numerous 
and needing the most room, are most widely separated. They are strongly rep- 
resented in seven of the fifteen wards, the Third, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, 
Ninth and Twelfth, which means tluit they prevail in tlie southern, the south- 
eastern and to .some extent in one of the northern wards of the city. Their 
stronghold is the Fifth Ward, streets like Wooster, lower Chapel, parts of Water 
Street, Olive, Fair and Brewery being theirs almost exclusively. ^Mention has 
'been made of their prevalence around Wooster Square. The adjoining section 
of Chapel Street, which forty years ago wa.s one of the most exclusive of New 
Haven, ha.s changed its character entirely. There was a time when many agreed 
that it had changed for the worse, but it has come about that even some particu- 
lar citizens no longer despair of New Haven's Fifth and Sixth wards. 

The Russian, or more typically the recently arrived Jewish population, is 
more condensed. Lower Oak Street and a part of Congi-ess Avenue form a com- 
munity of their own, in large measure. Time was when sensitive citizens 
avoided it. Now they find pleasure, and not a little instruction, in studying it. 
Time was when many regarded it as a plague spot, and there are more savory 
and cleaner spots today. But the observant notice that these new citizens are 
as willing to learn and as amenable to common sense as to the laws of health 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 221 

when they understand them as are many who have lived in New Haven more 
years. 

Citizens of German origin seem to have formed themselves into two groups, 
but even these are hardly condensed in any such manner as those of the newer 
arrivals. This was to be expected, for it is shown that in the case of everj- 
nationality in New Haven the longer the residence the greater the mingling. 
There is, however, a strong German representation on the western side of the 
Second Ward, particularly in the district of which Winthrop Avenue and George 
Street form two boundaries. This laps over into the Third Ward until it meets, 
somewhere in the vicinity of Congress Avenue or beyond, the stronghold of the 
Irish in the Fourth Ward. There is a large German element, less marked in 
area, in the Eighth and Ninth wards. This seems to be an expansion or over- 
flow. New Haven was never inclined, up to the time of the war, to draw any 
lines against the Germans. They were regarded a.s the most welcome of new 
Americans, supposed to make one of the most valuable of the forming elements 
of our citizenship. The war produced a condition most trying to these people. 
Always loyal in spirit to the fatherland, even if they did not wholly approve 
all the ways of its ruling class, they sedulously refrained from any expressions 
criticising its war. But on tlie other hand, realizing the worth of the country 
they had made their own, and their duty and del)t of citizenship to it, they were 
estopped from questioning its course. Their position before we entered the war 
was an embarrassing one ; afterward it was at times extremely critical. If they 
gave utterance to any feelings they might have they were blamed ; if they kept 
silence they were suspected. They had the sympathy of those who knew them 
best, and in the main the eonfidenee of the discerning. They must-await the just 
outcome of reconstruction. 

New Haven some time since lost the habit of regarding the Irish as immi- 
grants. The original source of increase of its population from other lands, they 
had grown into the life of the people through a presence of fifty years, to the 
extent that their alien origin had almost been forgotten. Yet the fact has to 
be mentioned that up to 1900 they led the nimilier of foreign born at each census, 
and that in 1910 for the first time they were passed, their numerical conquerors 
being the Italians. However, the census of 1910 showed 9,004 persons born in 
Ireland, almost one for each fifteen of the whole population. The percentage 
of Irish had not been gi-owing by immigi-ation very rapidly in the previous 
decades, but enough is known of the increase of this race to show that it has a 
great strength in the New Haven of today. In 1900 the Irish had over 30 per 
cent of the total foreign born population. It is a reasonable estimate that those 
of foreign Irish birth, and those born of Irish or mixed parentage, together 
make at present almost 70 per cent of the whole number of alien origin, and a 
very substantial minority of the total population of New Haven. 

The area occupied by newcomers who are classed as Austrian is about as 
indefinite as the classification itself. For most of those called Austrian in the 
census are popularly identified by other names. Prominent among them are 



222 A MODERN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN 

Czechs and Slovaks and Moravians and Bohemians. Seekers of liberty, appreei- , 
ating fully the privilege of American residence if not of American citizenship, 
they have proved, in the main, loyal citizens of this country even in the great 
war. Their location in the city is shown most noticeably in the returns from the 
Third. Fourth and Eleventh wards, but so scattered are they that it is not feasi- 
ble to trace them more exactly. 

New Haven has a comparatively small number of French Canadians, found 
mostly in the Ninth and Twelfth wards. The sons of France itself, and of Den- 
mark, Norway, Sweden and Turkey are pretty evenly scattered. There is a fair 
sprinkling of Greeks, but not sufficient to give them a separate census classifica- 
tion. The Indians, Chinese and Japanese are found to be most plentiful in the 
First \Vard, though there is a representation in every ward except the Thirteenth 
and Fourteenth. 

The census considers the negro population by itself; New Haven in general 
has shown a like disposition as to segregation. Not that there is a deliberate 
resolve to draw the color line; there is, on the contrary, much pretense against 
it. But there is what amounts to a definite separation of these people by them- 
selves, and most of them, after a short experience with the spirit of New Haven, 
are resigned to what naturally appears to theui the inevitable. The Ninth, as 
is well known, is their ward. New Haven has no gi'ound for fearing any '*black 
peril," as the figures plainly show. There were in New Haven in 1850, 19,356 
wliite persons to 989 colored persons. The number of so-called native born was 
only 16,641 to 3,697 foreign born. This indicated a pei'centage of 4.8 colored 
to the total population as against a percentage of 13.4 foreign born to the total 
population. Thirty years later the number of colored persons was 2,192 to a 
total population of 62,882 ; again.st this, the number of foreign born was 15,668 
to 47,214 native. This was a percentage of 3.4 colored against a percentage of 
24.9 foreign born. Thirty years more, and there were 3,561 colored in New 
Haven's 133,605 population. There were out of the same total 42,784 foreign 
born. This represented a percentage of 2.7 colored to 32 per cent foreign born. 
The colored percentage has decreased in eveiT decade, reaching its lowest point 
in 1910, There has been since that date the notable exodus of colored people 
from the South to the North due to the disturlied labor conditions caused by the 
war, for which no reliable figures are available. This may show a marked 
change in the proportions, but there seems at present no real ground for regard- 
ing it as serious. In any ease, the colored people of New Haven are well able 
to hold their course of steady progress and self respecting citizenship which has 
made them in the past an element of strength and value in the city's population. 

Ill 

New Haven has no genuine race troubles between colors or between tongues. 
It is a peaceful city. The very air is conservative. Its people dwell together 
in harmony. Each race and people is permitted, with a freedom that in the 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 223 

large view is most remarkable, to work out its destiny. There is, or was in the 
days when the realization of the alien Hood first came upon the citizens of the 
older stock, consideralile foreboding, publicly or privately expressed. But it 
has not been lasting, still less has it been justified by exijerience. The many of 
those who deem themselves the proper heirs of the land of New Haven have 
stood aloof as much as might be. and their chief assistance to the situation has 
been in hoping for the best. But there has been a minority that has wisely 
directed the process of assimilation. The most important of these have been 
the faithful teachers in the schools, especially some of the more far set'ing prin- 
cipals who have served in the crucial districts in this period of change. They 
have met the tide of foreign invasion, standing as rocks that direct its flow. 
They have, to use a more adequate figure, taken the plastic clay and wisely 
molded it. 

It has been a slow process, bi;t it has been sure. Faithful work has won 
the victory. Never were there humans more eager to learn than the youth of 
the Old World, standing, as have those newly come to New Haven, in the light 
of the opportunities of the New. They could not have done better than to 
come to the sane, well organized, well officered and well equipped schools of 
this city. Their teachers cannot be too highly praised, but on the other hand, 
seldom have teachers had more thrilling inspiration. Never were brighter minds 
than those of the youth who were cracking the Old AVorld shell, coming into 
the wonderful educational light of such a community as the New Haven of 
the opening twentieth century. The effect has been marvelous. The schools 
have soundly, effectively trained these youth, and the training has reacted on 
the parents. It is to the schools, fundamentally and first of all, that the credit 
must be given for making over the elders and forming the minds of the children. 

There were evening schools, too, for the older seekers of learning. They 
were many, and of many races. New Haven found here a problem too great for 
it at first. The evening schools of 1890 to 1900 were crude and comparatively 
unorganized, but they did, with all their handicaps, a tremendously valuable 
work. They taught our customs, language, wa.ys and laws. Gradually they 
became better organized, though they could not have more faithful teachers 
than those who served in the early days when this was settlement, missionary, 
as much as educational work. The increase of opportunity has been steady, and 
the effect increasingly apparent. 

There has been along with this much wholly or partial settlement work 
which was worthy of note. Some mention has previously been made in these 
pages of the work of Saint Paul's and the Davenport branch of Center Church 
in the Wooster Square district, where the Italians most do congi-egate. This 
has been constant and consistent, and has borne its notable fruits. Welcome 
Hall and other church missions have done their part. There has been real 
settlement work at Lowell House, where lovers of humanity like Dr. Julia E. 
Teele and Mr. and Mrs. Robert A. Crosby have lived in close touch with the 
people in one of the most Congested regions of the city, and served as the leaders 



224 A MODERN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN 

for an earnest and increasing group of learners of the blessed privilege of 
heli)ing humanity by the bi-othcrly hand. 

The direct work of the schools for the children came, as time went on, to 
be supplemented by positive corauninity center work for which the school build- 
ing's facilities were employed as agencies. It took time and persuasion to con- 
vince the conservative taxpayers of New Haven that their expensive school 
buildings were not serving them adequately if open no more than six or seven 
hours for 200 days of the year, and that they had a still greater task to do. 
They would not, for a long time, see their responsibility for the help of those 
who had newly come, even their duty of self defense in aiding them to become 
better citizens. But the realization came in time. The reluctant consent of 
the Board of Education — reluctant not because of its own failure to see the 
point, but because of fear of the criticism of undiscerning citizens — was secured 
for the opening of the school buildings on certain evenings of the month for 
neighborhood and parents' meetings, for entertainments which parents and chil- 
dren might share together, for lectures and talks on subjects concerning the 
welfare of the people. It was an extension of the work of the .schools, and it 
has had its material and growing result. 

Another effort, in whose promotion New Haven had a substantial share, was 
the extension to New Haven of the influence of the "Guides to the United 
States," written by John Foster Carr of New York. These were little pam- 
phlets, published in the principal languages of the immigrant, whose purpose 
was to tell the newcomer in the simplest terras and the friendliest way the 
things he most needed for progress toward Americanism. They were easy, 
practical guides to America, real helping hands. They were inspii-ed by idealism, 
by real understanding of the heart of the seekers of freedom and opportunity, by 
consecrated desire to help them, not to exploit them. New Haven had a .share 
in these in a double way. It received the benefit which Mr. Carr's invaluable 
books afforded to many of the people seeking this city from foreign lands ; 
and as the Connecticut Daughters of the American Revolution in large mea.sure 
financed the publication. New Haven, through a large number of its excellent 
women, was actively engaged in direct benefit to thousands of immigrants 
who went to other points. This guide-book has now been issued in five or six 
principal languages, and has done an incalculable amount of good in the forma- 
tion of worthy AiTierican citizenship. 

New Haven has, however, been only a sharer in the contributions to new 
America which has come in through the Ellis Island gates. Every town in the 
eastern side of the county has had its melting pot, too, in some eases more 
taxed than New Haven's. Detailed census figures are available only for the 
larger towns, but these make a significant showing. Meriden, with its 32,066 
people in 1910, had 27 per cent, or 8,704 of native born to 23,217 of foreign 
born or foreign parentage. These were mostly German, Austrian, Irish and 
English, with Italy a good fifth. Wallingford, just below, had 7.367 of foreign 
origin to 3,758 natives. Orange, which includes "West Haven, and is in effect a 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 225 

suburb of New Haven, had in all 11,272 people in 1910 ; its growth has been very 
rapid since, and it may have twice as many now. It is more in the pos- 
session of the native sons than is New Haven, however, having slightily more 
than half its people native white of native parents. Branford's preponderance 
of newcomers has been marked for years, for out of a population of 6,047 in 
1910, it has 4,025 either foreign bom or native bom of foreign parents. 

So it runs through all the smaller towns. Guilford, iladison. North Bran- 
ford and all the rest have been reached by the ramifying tide. The old farms 
have passed and are passing out of the hands of the old New England farmers, 
whose boys have, in many cases, moved to the tempting city and left them, fain 
to give up the unhelped struggle with the land. Thrifty, hard-working sons 
of the Old World have come in, have reclaimed the run-down farms, have 
repaired the falling or abandoned buildings. But there are whole neighbor- 
hoods where not a farmer of the old stock remains. It is a melancholy or a 
cheering change, according to the eyes with which one views it. 

All in all, this radical change which the population of New Haven and east- 
ern New Haven County has undergone fails to disappoint the close observer. 
A dwindling native population in these communities has surprisingly held its 
own. To its honor be it said that, with few and unimportant exceptions, it 
has been able to impress its spirit on those who have come, to fraternize with 
them, to make them New Englanders. Something in the "rock-ribbed granite 
hills" has entered into the blood of those who have come. They have seen of 
the spirit of New England and become filled with it. The melting pot haa 
done its work well, and those refined by its fire are content. New England 
is still New England, the same, yet changed, and not for the worse, in these 
cities and towns. Here as nowhere else in America is revealed that wonder of 
the New World alchemy, which brings forth as gold tried in the fire the varied 
metal which comes beneath its influence. 



CHAPTER XXIV 
MAKERS OF MODERN NEW HAVEN 

IN GENERAL PUBLIC SERVICE— MEN OF THE CHURCHES— LEADERS IN EDUCATION 

COURTS AND LAWYERS — MEDICINE AND SOME OF THE PHYSICIANS — LEADERS IN 
GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS — BANKS AND BANKERS NEWSPAPERS AND PRINT- 
ERS MANUFACTURERS, MERCHANTS, ENGINEERS AND OTHERS 



God made the country out of whic-h New Haven, the city, was carved. Men 
— and women — have made the town, the modern community wliieh now we view. 
To enumerate the makers would be almost an endless task. To tell the half of 
their work would be still nearer the impossible. No man may know who have 
deserved the more prominent mention. So one presumes not a little in selecting 
a few on whom the light has now and then flashed in such a way as to make it 
seem that they might be considered leaders in the community that is today. 

In large measure the story of some has been told in the chapters that have 
preceded, and more of it will come in the chapters to follow. The test applied 
is the test of service in distinguished degree. Thousands of others served as 
well, even made possible the cumulative service of these men who are here 
called the makers of modern New Haven. The work of woman is in itself so 
important as to require a separate chapter. No attempt is made here to be bio- 
graphical. This is only an attempt to give a glimpse of now and then a man as 
he is assigned to his place in the structure of the community. 

But for one man, it would be rash to select New Haven's foremost citizen. 
But so few are the American towns who can claim in their citizenship an 
ex-president of the United States that with them there can be no question. 
Hon. William Howard Taft deliberately and advisedly chose New Haven for his 
place of residence when he retired from the presidency in 1913, and has ever 
since been an interested, loyal citizen of the town, participating, as far as so 
busy a man can do, in all its activities. In public work through the Chamber 
of Commerce, through Yale, through other agencies, he has contributed more 
materially than one may reckon to the advancement of this city. And he has 
always been an inspiration to the observing among his fellows. New Haven, as 
does the nation, knows his worth. 

Reckoned, in his specialty of patent law, first in his city and among the 
foremost in his state, George Dudley Seymour is even better known in New 
Haven for other things. Pew men have better deserved the designation "prac- 

226 




KATHAX HALE STATUE ON \ALE I X]\'i:KsnV CAMPUS, XEW HAVEN 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 227 

tieal idealist." He has found time, apart from a very exacting practice, to 
contribute in more ways than any but his closest associates know to the welfare 
of his city. He would make it better in architecture, in plan of public places 
and streets, in symmetry and beauty. He would inspire in its citizens regard 
for true values, respect for noble traditions, true patriotism and exalted com- 
mon sense. He has not merely sought a "city beautiful." He has striven 
after a city practical, noble, healthful, prosperous in the highest sense. He 
has promoted ideal architecture; he has also backed a manufacturers' exhibit. 
When some Tale men wanted to place on the Tale campus a Nathan Hale statue 
of the common melodramatic type, he effectually opposed them with a plea for 
"the familiar Hale." And he prevailed. Then, to prove his appreciation, he 
at his own cost purchased the Hale birthplace in Coventry, and held it as a 
public memorial. The rest of the deeds he has done are not written. Most of 
them never will be. But in almost every truly valuable work done in New Haven 
in the past decade and more the searcher would find his hand. 

If the man who guides the feet of the stranger, who crystallizes local his- 
tory while it is nebulous, who makes practical in the intensest' ways the 
art preservative is a noble server of the public good, then Wilson H. Lee's 
contribution to New Haven must be multiplied by sixty-five, for he makes direc- 
tories for that many towns. He is proud that he is a printer, and would 
readily claim that as his vocation. But he is so good a farmer that he is a 
valued member of the State Board of Agriculture, and so good a dairyman that 
he has been president of the Connecticut Dairymen's Association. It's a way 
he has of doing everything he does in the best way, just as he does his patriotism 
and his public service. A few years ago he was president of the Connecticut 
Society of Sons of the American Revolution. His standing in the directory 
world is indicated by his former presidency of the American Association of 
Directory Publishers, and all these things indicate his standing in New Haven, 
and his worth to the community. 

Isaac M. Ullman would set himself down as a manufacturer, but though 
he is successful there, that seems the least conspicuous of his local activities. In 
the state as well as the city he is known for his participation in polities. He 
admits that. He knows what many citizens seem not to know, that the machinery 
of government will not run itself. He likes to participate in the management. 
It may be said of him without reproach that he has made mayors of New Haven, 
and has made at least one governor of Connecticut. He has always worked as 
•sincerely for the advancement of New Haven as he has in his terms as president 
of the Chamber of Commerce. He has set others at work, and led the way. 
When there is something to be done, from managing a city political campaign 
to managing a state Red Cross campaign. Colonel Ullman is the man who 
can do it. 

Mr. Ullman has cordially given to Charles E. Julin, whose prominence in 
New Haven is largely due to his efficient work as secretary of the Chamber 
of Commerce, much of the praise for .success credited to himself. Certain it 



228 



A MODERN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN 



IS 



that Mr. Juliu's cousistent, inteUigent, industrious effort has told tremen- 
dously for the good of the city. He is a lawyer by education, but substantially 
all his practice is in the Chamber of Commerce office. 

William S. Pardee has high standing among the lawyers of New Haven as 
an authority on the city charter, and his service for the general public welfare, 
which in recent years has withdrawn him largely from private practice, deserves 
for him a high place. His contributions to local and state government, his 
constant thought of how he may improve the community he loves so well, his 
cordial good fellowship at every time— these and many other qualities make 
him to those who know him well one of the valued citizens of New Haven. 

For a generation, extending well toward the present time, Max Adler was 
a powerful factor in the better life of New Haven. A philanthropist in the 
highest sense, he constantly gave of himself as well as his money for every 
good cause. His fine loyalty to the faith of Israel but broadened liim and 
made him the friend of every faith that was sincere. Educational, industrial, 
financial, administrative and social circles as well had felt the touch of his 
brotherhood, the fineness of his spirit and the wisdom of his counsel, and all 
alike miss him yet. 

A born newspaper man, Lewis S. Welch, throwing himself with all his 
heart into the public service of New Haven, has in later years come to an even 
broader position. His work on Hartford and New Haven newspapers after his 
graduation from Yale gave him a sense of public opportunity, and his contri- 
bution to journalism in the conduct of the Yale Alumni Weekly through some 
of its trying years gave him a strong hold on the gratitude of Yale graduates. 
But New Haven knows him in these days as a man ever ready to give his best 
for the city, through charter or Chamber of Commerce or Civic Federation 
committee or any other agency that offers. 

New Haven may be presuming to claim Frederick J. Kiugsbury, the younger, 
as a participant in its community work, for his birth and business interests are 
elsewhere. But because of his residence he has so heartily entered into some 
of the activities of the city that his a.ssociation seems verv close. Especially 
through the Young Men's Christian Association and the Civic Federation he has 
given public service of great value. 

In 1908 there appeared a remarkable book by a man bom only thirty-two 
years earlier in New Haven. "A Mind That Found Itself," by Clifford W. 
Beers, has in the short time since proved an epoch-making work. It has proved 
so because it has been followed up by the inspired effort of its author, who 
believed and still believes in the purpose and conclusion of his book, that "what 
the insane most need is a friend. ' ' To tell in brief the outcome of his experience 
and his writing is to say that, following the foundation of the Connecticut 
Society for Mental Hygiene in 1908 and the organizing of the National Com- 
mittee for Mental Hygiene the year after, there have come into being societies 
on the Connecticut model in Illinois, New York, Massachusetts, Maryland, Penn- 
sylvania, North Carolina, District of Columbia, Alabama, Louisiana, California, 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 229 

Rhode Island, Ohio, Tennessee, Missouri, Indiana, Iowa, Virginia and the City 
of Dayton, with all their wondrous influence for the improvement of the con- 
dition of the insane, and the prevention of mental disease. 

From the university standpoint, Professor William B. Bailey 's place is with 
the educators. But one who knows of the work which for the past four or 
five years he has done as director of the Organized Charities is bound to claim 
him for the city. His identification with this community had for several years 
before that been very close in many ways, such as through the Foote Boys' 
Club, Lowell House, the Civic Federation and the Connecticut Society for 
Mental Hygiene. An eminent and able educator, a statistician of note, he has 
proved himself above all a wise and effectual humanitarian, an4 it is in no 
merely sentimental sense that multitudes rise up to call him blessed. 

An instance of a lawyer who has broadened beyond his profession, without 
■disparaging that, is James T. Moran. He has brought fame to the city now 
as president of the Southern New England Telephone Company, but in the years 
before, as member of the Board of Education, as banker, business man and faith- 
ful churchman, he has consistently promoted the best causes in New Haven. A 
man of brilliant mental and executive ability, he has been a fairly dynamic 
force in New Haven's progress. 

New Haven was and is conservative, but when a man comes bearing the 
light of brotherhood, it welcomes him with open arms. So it is that though his 
coming to the city was comparatively res-ent, Allen B. Lincoln already is one of 
the best known and respected of its citizens. The good works into which he has 
entered with all his zeal are almost too numerous to mention, but among them, 
of course, are the Civic Federation and the Chamber of Commerce. As business 
manager of the annual campaigns of the Mothers' Aid Society, as occasional 
organizer of other campaigns of the sort, liis aid has repeatedly been sought, and 
never in vain. His participation in the Davenport settlement work has already 
been mentioned. 

For two-thirds of a century this city has known the sterling citizen whom 
ever\-body lovingly calls General Greeley, now a veteran in years as well as of 
war. Successful in business as investor and banker, he has devoted his wealth 
without stint to every appeal, and has given his own effort unsparingly besides. 
]\Iodcstly avoiding ]3rominenee, he has had many important offices of civics and 
charity pressed upon him, and has earnestly accepted them. 

The term "self made man" has been so overworked that it has come to have 
a little touch of opprobrium. Yet if is proper to apply it to Dennis A. Blakeslee, 
for he has made other things than himself, and made them well. He has made 
his firm the leading contracting concern in the city, and one of the leaders in 
the county. There is hardly a town in the state or a trunk line highway that 
does not show his firm's work, while railroads, steam and electric, as well as 
many other considerable works in this and other states show its sterling mark. 
Their two most ambitious works of recent years are the "railroad cut" in New 
Haven, a fine example of engineering and concrete construction, and a section 



230 A MODERN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN 

at Kitehewan, near Ossiuing, of the Catskills-to-Manhattau aqueduct, where 
they competed with the best engineers of New York and other states, and showed 
their superiority. Mr. Blate.slee, in addition to attending to his business, has 
found time to serve his town, his county and his state as representative, senator 
and lieutenant governor. 

Though coming in recent years to be a leader in a city where real estate 
dealers abound, Frederick M. Ward has still found time for much public work, 
and New Haven owes much for its advancement in good directions to him. A 
man of high ideals, sane and practical in following them, he is a strength to more 
good causes than most of his neighbors know. 

The city^here he has his headquarters, and which has his first attention, 
gets only a part of the benefit of the large contribution to public enjoyment of 
Sylvester Z. Poll. In twenty years or so he has made a wonderful record. Start- 
ing in a minor way in New Haven with a small amusement house, he has gone 
on until he ha.s established a chain of theaters of varying types in eight cities. 
In New Haven he has three, the old Hyperion being the last to come into his 
hands. He has also one or more theaters in Bridgeport, Meriden, Hartford, 
Springfield, Worcester, Seranton and Wilkes-Barre. Pa. 

II 

In New Haven, city of churches, the influence of the gospel preacher as a 
maker and moulder is as great now, in a different way, as ever since the pilgrim 
days. The city has bad some men of marvelous power in the modern period. 
Its day of long pastorates, as we have seen, is not wholly past, though in most 
of the churches the present leaders are comers within a decade. Their leader- 
ship is acknowledged, their aid sought, in many a wofk not a little out of 
their lino. 

In the coui-se of progress, denominational distinctions are often lost, and 
especially the institution now called the Yale School of Religion has doft:'ed its 
sectarian garb, and become recognized as a broad leader. In these days this is 
not a little due to the strength and genius of the man who came to be head of 
this school about 1912, Dean Charles R. Brown. He has been called one of the 
ten great preachers of America. That is of less moment, however, than the fact 
that he is a man of rare idealism and discernment, who wins men of all creeds 
and ranks, and is beloved of all. However, his own church has men .strong out- 
side of their denomination. Doctor ]\Iaurer admirably maintains the traditions 
of Center. Rev. Robert C. Denison and Rev. Artemas J. Haynes have been a 
great pair in the old North Church. Doctor Phillips was a power for twenty 
years and more at the Church of the Redeemer, and had an unusual hold on all 
the city. Rev. Roy M. Houghton has ably taken up his work. Rev. Frank R. 
Luckey has for thirty years kept the faith at the Humphrey Street Church. 
Rev. Harry R. Miles has ably followed the work of Doctor Leete in Dwight 
Place Church and New Haven, as has Rev. Orville A. Petty followed Doctor 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 231 

McLane at Plymouth. Rev. Edward F. Goin does a noble service for his people 
at Dixwell Avenue Church, and a broader work for the people of the city. Rev. 
Harris E. Starr, ca.st of the (juinnipiac, and Rev. Clair F. Luther, west of West 
River, with Rev. William C. Prentiss in the old Grand Avenue Church, make 
up a groi;p of strong men. 

The other churches have had, through men of faith and brotherhood, no less 
an influence in this later period. The Episcopal churces have a gi-eat quartet 
in Rev. Stewart Means at St. John's. Rev. William A. Beardsley at St. Thomas, 
Rev. Charles 0. Scoville at Trinity and Rev. George L. Paine at St. Paul's. 
Rev. Frederick Lent at the Fii-st Baptist is a man who commands great influence 
throughout the city. There have been several recent changes at Calvary Bap- 
tist, but they have not weakened the influence of this live, spiritual church, in 
whose pulpit Rev. James McGee, following such men as Hoag, Munro and 
Poteat, now wields an enviable power. The Catholic Church, through such vet- 
eran pastors as Father Coyle at St. John's. Father Russell at St. Patrick '.s, 
Father McGivney at St. Joseph's in Westville, Father McKeon at Sacred Heart 
and Father Harty at St. Joseph's in the city, has been a mighty force of com- 
munity blessing. From the Temple on Orange Street has radiated, in the past 
twenty years, an influence for service and for good that has reached far beyond 
the followers of the faith of Israel, through such teachers as Rabbi Levy and 
Rabbi Mann. The I\Iethodist Church has covered the city, and through a long 
list of consecrated men has worked for its upbuilding. Some among them, like 
Doctor Dent and Mr. Laird at the First Church, Mr. Munson and Doctor Good- 
enough at Trinity and Mr. Smith at East Pearl Street have entered largely into 
New Haven's general life. Churches numerically smaller have had, through 
men of good will, a part above proportion to their size. Rev. Theodore A. 
Fischer of the LTniversalist has been found shoulder to shoulder with the work- 
ers of New Haven in every task attempted, always a welcome comrade. 
Mr. Timm of the German Lutheran Church was for many years a participant 
in many public affairs, and long a valued member of the Library Board. 
Rev. James Grant, though denied by ill health the privilege of having his own 
church, has been a welcome preacher in every church, a .joy at every feast and 
always an uplifting power. The city will never lose the good of the long service 
of Rev. William D. Mos.sman as leader of the City ^Mission work and one of the 
founders of the Organized Charities. 

These men of the church are leaders now, as ever, in the universal war work. 
The Congregational group especially shows .just now a notalile record. Six of 
these ministers from New Haven and nearby are now in active sevice on the 
war fronts. Rev. Orville A. Petty of Plymouth went out with the One Hundred 
and Second as its chaplain. Doctor Maurer of Center, Jlr. Starr of Pilgrim, 
Mr. Houghton of the Church of the Redeemer, Mr. Miles of Dwight Place and 
Mr. Brown of West Haven are in the Young Men's Christian Association war 
sei-vice, most of them in France. In the Episcopal Church, Rev. George L. 
Paine has just resigned from St. Paul's to enter a similar service, and now :\Ir. 
Laird, lately of the First Methodist, has joined the war service. 



232 A MODERN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN 

The influence of the leaders in the Congi-egational churches made New Haven 
the place of a national church gathering in 1915. This was the sixteenth National 
Council, which brought to the city some thousands of delegates and guests from 
all parts of the country and beyond. A capable commitee of ministers and lay- 
men, headed by Rev. Oscar E. I\Iaurer, handled the arrangements, and were so 
well supported by citizens in general that the visitors testified that no council 
up to that time had been so satisfactorily entertained. 

Ill 

There is a long list of educators who have had more than a professional 
influence on their community. The presidents of Yale have given their first 
thought to that great institution, and that has been enough to take all their 
attention. But also, with few exceptions, they have been active citizens of the 
community. This has been especially so in the cases of Doctor Dwight and 
Doctor Hadley, presidents in the recent period. Both were born in New Haven, 
and their city has markedly felt the influence of each. Doctor Dwight, released 
in 1899 from the duties of the presidency, never ceased to the time of his death 
to have a keen interest in public affairs, and served the city in more ways 
than most of his fellows knew. The burden of the presidency in the years 
since would have been enough for an ordinary man, but Doctor Hadley, as is 
well known, is in a way a superman. His public service and interest have been 
national as well as local, and they have been gi-eat. Not far behind these has 
been Rev. Anson Phelps Stokes, for many years secretary of the university, 
who has thrown himself into the life of New Haven with the enthusiasm of a 
native. 

Many might also be mentioned among the teachers of the university who 
have exerted a positive influence in the formation of the city, and contributed by 
personal work to its progress. Foremost among them, no doubt, is Prof. 
Henry "W. Parnam, in every way a live, valuable citizen. A man with very wide 
affiliations and constant demands on his attention, he has never failed to respond 
to every local appeal for his help, Prof. Irving Fisher, as busy a man in 
many ways, has been as assiduous in serving New Haven. Prof. Charles 
Foster Kent was the first president of the Civic Federation, and has participated 
in many church and civic works. Dr. Russell H. Chittenden, head of the 
scientific school, has been a loyal citizen in many ways, and the contribution 
of Prof. L. P. Breckenridge of the same institution has been material. 
Prof. Hiram Bingham has "mixed" well with the men of New Haven, always 
ready to lend a hand, and George Parmly Day, treasurer of the university, has 
participated in many good community works. 

The contribution, direct and indirect, of Arthur B. Morrill to the welfare 
of New Haven has been considerable. An educator of eminent rank, the head 
of the Normal school, has been an inspiration and example of good citizenship 
to old and young. Superintendent Frank H. Beede of the schools has never 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 23:j 

been a detaehed citizen, busy as be bas been, though his contribution through 
the upbuilding of the schools has been all that the city could ask. In this 
he has been ably assisted, of late years, by the associate superintendents, Claude 
C. Russell, Junius C. Knowlton and John C. McCarthy. Nor should mention 
be omitted of George T. Hewlett, since 1900 secretary of the Board of Educa- 
tion, who has been identified with many a public work. Charles L. Kir&chner, 
principal of the high school, Frank L. Glynn and Roljert 0. Beebe, successively 
directors of the trade school, should also be mentioned. In business education 
a leader who has aided the community in no small way is Nathan B. Stone of 
the Stone Business College. 

IV 

A community with a legal history based on such traditions as the record 
of Roger Sherman and James Abram Hillhouse is competently maintaining its 
standards in the modern time. For almost two centuries New Haven, jointly 
with Hartford, administered the law for the state, and provided temples of .justice. 
It later came to have the only school of law in the state, and from that, as well 
as from the standing of its lawyers, it still retains its prestige as a leader of 
the Connecticut bar. From the ranks of its lawyers have come three of the 
four governors which the city has furnished in the past forty years. It has 
always been well represented on the benches of state and nation, and in the 
present period has had a chief justice of the State Supreme Court, Hon. Simeon 
E. Baldwin. It now has a circuit judge in the United States District Court, 
Hon. Henry Wade Rogers, called from his high place as dean of the Yale Law 
School ; a United States commissioner, William A. Wright ; an associate judge 
of the State Supreme Court of Errors. Hon. John K. Beach ; one judge of the 
Superior Court who is a resident of the city, William L. Bennett, and another 
who has his office in the city, James H. Webb. 

New Haven, as the county seat, is now occupying its fifth courthouse since 
the first primitive structure on the Green was built in 1717. That building 
served until 1767, for the requirements of the courts were then very modest, 
according to our standards. The next structure, standing on Temple Street, 
midway between where Trinity and Center churches now stand, was bare, but it 
served for almost fifty years. Then the courts moved into what New Haveners 
of this generation have known as the old State House, on the Green west of the 
churches. Their requirements outgrew it before a new courthouse could be 
provided, and we find them using, from 1861 to 1871, spare room in the City 
Hall. In that period the county took active steps to provide a new building, 
and the result wa.s the brown stone edifice which still stands north of the City 
Hall. This was completed in 1873, and was palatial for those times. 

But soon after the new century came in, New Haven County, though in 
the meantime it had provided a fine building in Waterbury where some of the 
courts of the district were held, felt that it must have a new and adequate 
courthouse at the county seat. A committee appointed by a meeting of the 
county's senators and representatives at Hartford on February 20, 1907, found 



n/ 



234 A MODERN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN 

that the then existing county courthouses were not adequate, and submitted as 
its report a vote of the Bar of New Haven County, resolving that it approved 
the decision of the committee to recommend a new building. The committee and 
the lawyers agreed on the northwest corner of Elm and Church streets as a 
desirable site, and the latter appointed a committee consisting of John K. Beach, 
Isaac Wolfe, Harry G. Day, Henry C. White and John H. Webb to act in con- 
junction with the county committee. 

The committee for the county, appointed June 27, 1907, consisted of 
Hon. John Q. Tilson, speaker of the House ; John K. Beach of New Haven and 
Senator Dennis A. Blakeslee and the county commissioners, who then were 
Edward F. Thompson, Jacob D. Walter and James Geddes. About two years 
later John K. Beach resigned, and Frank S. Bishop of New Haven was appointed 
in his place. T'ae committee continued in charge of the work until the building 
was completed, except that James F. Cloonan of Mei'iden succeeded Mr. Thomp- 
son as county commissioner. 

Tlie architects chosen were Allen & Williams of New Haven, and the plan 
they submitted was similar in eft'ect to St. George's Hall in London. It was 
in 1909 that the work was begun, with the Sperry & Treat Company of New 
Haven as the general contractor. It was reported finished, furnished and ready 
for occupancy on March 24, 1914, at a total cost of $1,324,869.35. It surpasses 
any county building in the state, and is one of the finest in the New England 
region. Standing at a prominent corner of the Green, it makes one of the 
most distinguished features of the central group of architecture. Within it is 
sul)stantial]y and luxui-iously a]>pointed, with ample provisions for all the county 
courts and offices. Its distinguished mural paintings have been done, including 
the decorating, by T. Gilbert White, and the sculpture, wiiich includes two 
figures of heroic size before the building, by J. Massey Rhind. 

In such a home meets a distinguished company of lawyers. Tlierc were 
228 of them in New- Haven in 1917. The three governors whom they have 
recently furnished are Hon. Henry B. Harrison, 1885-87 ; Hon. Luzon B. Morris, 
1893-95 ; Hon. Simeon E. Baldwin, 1911-15. The last was the first governor to 
be elected for a second term since the term was made two years in 1884. More 
recently the bar of New Haven has provided a secretary of state, Hon. Frederick 
L. Perry. In this period New Haven lawyers have provided two members of 
Congress. Hon. James P. Pigott, in 1893-95, and Hon. John Q. Tilson, who was 
memher-at-large from 1909 to 1913, was chosen from the Third district in 1914 
and re-elected in 1916. 

These are not the only ones who have been called to higher office. Hon. Bur- 
ton Mansfield, justly honored in many circles of his fellow citizens, leader 
among churchmen as w^ell as lawyers, was appointed insurance commissioner 
of Connecticut by Governor Morris in 1893, and when Governor Baldwin wanted 
the right man for the place he reappointed him in 1911. So admirably has 
he filled the office that Governor Baldwin's Republican succes-sor continued him 
in it. Besides that he holds numerous positions of trust, financial and indus- 
trial, as well as legal. John Currier Gallagher, who succeeded Edward A. 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 235 

Anketell as clerk of the New Haven County Superior Court in 1907, and 
remained in the position until his death in 1912, had heen assistant for years 
before that, and was one of the honored members of the New Haven group. 
Mr. Anketell, on his part, had been clerk of the courts of the county for 
eighteen years before that, and stood high in his profession. 

William K. Townsend, native of New Haven, long one of the most dis- 
tinguished members of its legal group, was another who rose to the rank of a 
federal judgeship, being appointed to the United States Circuit Court in 1892. 
Henry G. Newton is another whose departure is so recent as to make his memory 
very vivid. He was one of the most respected members of the New Haven bar 
for over forty years, and at the time of his death had long been a referee in bank- 
ruptcy. His place in many relations in New Haven was a very large one. 
Charles Kleiner, for thirty-four years a member of the New Haven bar, has just 
closed a remarkable term of eight years as corporation counsel, a pei-iod in which 
he has abundantly justified the confidence of his fellow lawyers and citizens in 
his sterling character, fine legal training and careful judgment. Livingston 
W. Cleaveland, who though eminent in his profession, occupies an even higher 
place in New Haven esteem, has held for several terms the probate judgeship, 
and is prominent in many efforts for the common good. John P. Studley, for 
three terms New Haven's mayor, roimded out his public career by a service as 
judge of probate, and was succeeded by John L. Gilson, the present able and 
popular holder of the office. Roceo Terardi, one of the able younger lawyers, 
was for several years prosecutor in the police court. 

New Haven has several law firms which are notable in their history, though 
their individuals have been no less distinguished. One of the more prominent 
of these is White Brothers, unique in the fact that four generations, from 
Dyer White of the colonial days to Roger White, 2d, served the public as 
conveyancers, sul>stantially on the same site. A younger firm by far, but as 
distinguished in its way, is Clark, Hall & Peek, which has a statewide reputation 
for skill and reliability in the searching of titles. One of the most prosperous 
firms in these days is Stoddard, Goodhart & Stoddard, a group of strong men 
whose ability covers a wide range. Bristol & White is a firm now including 
some of the ablest members of the bar, John W. Bristol, Leonard 51. Daggett, 
Henry C. White and Thomas Hooker, Jr. Watrous & Day is made up of 
George D. Watrous, just regarded as one of the leaders of the bar, an attorney 
of the highest ability, a professor in the Yale Law School and a citizen of 
sterling worth ; and Harry G. Day, who divides his attention between eminent 
service in his profession and the executive guidance of the New Haven Hospital. 

A notable group includes men who have retired, others who have had their 
eulogies written. Besides Judge Townsend and Judge Newton, already men- 
tioned, there is Earliss P, Arvine, who rests from a useful life and service. 
Henry T. Blake is still active, though not in legal practice. John W. Ailing, 
after long service as president of the Telephone Company, has also somewhat 
relaxed the strenuous life. 

The list might greatly be extended. Seymour C. Loomis has a high standing 



236 A MODERN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN 

in his profession, but iiuds time for mucli non-professional public work. Donald 
A. Adams, though continuing his legal work as a teacher as well as a prac- 
titioner, has carried the secretarial work of the Civic Federation for two years 
past and done much other public service. Harry "W. Asher has an enviable 
place in his profession. Bernard E. Lynch is trusted as a counselor and hon- 
ored as a citizen. Matthew A. Reynolds, an attorney of high ability, has also 
served the city as a public official, notably as a member of the Board of Fire 
Commissioners. Eliot Watrous, in addition to a handsome private practice, 
is often found engaged in unpaid public endeavor. George W. Crawford occu- 
pies a high position among his fellows, and peculiarly and ably serves the 
people of the colored race, to whom he always gives wise and reliable counsel. 
A. McClellan Mathewson, in addition to his private practice, has rendered the 
community a large service, in his time as police court judge and since, in work 
for the boys of New Haven. For many years he headed the local council for 
the Bov Scouts, and his interest in the rising generation is real and constructive. 



In nothing has New Haven made greater advances in the recent period than 
in the lienefits derived from the practice of medicine. It was never backward 
in that respect, for in it for generations some of the ablest of American 
physicians have labored. But it was unfortunately true that, in the period 
just before the beginning of this century, the tide of wealth that was aiding 
the science of medicine through the schools was running stronger in almost 
every direction than toward Yale. And on Yale Medical School New Haven 
depended in great measure for its medical inspiration. 

The "beloved physicians" — and New Haven has had many of them — ^worked 
on in zeal and faith. They, have kept New Haven in the front rank. And in 
this time the fruit of their works appears. Friends with wealth and the love 
and pride of Yale have come to the rescue of its medical school. They are 
making it one of the foremost in the country, and greater things are ahead for 
it. This reacts in a direct way on New Haven. For there has been materially 
strengthened an alliance which has existed from the beginning between Yale 
Medical School and the New Haven Hospital. The leading hospital in the city, 
recently greatly enlarged in its space and equipment, is to have more than 
ever the service of Yale — the new Yale. The New Haven Dispensary, which has 
for forty-six years existed to serve at the lowest cost those who most need 
medical advice and assistance, is also to have its scope and service increased. 
The general medical advance has for some years reacted on the New Haven 
public health service, which has been reformed on modern standards. 

All this has been the work of faithful men who have industrioiisly applied 
their learning. Most of them have been identified with the trio, Yale, the 
hospital and New Haven. Some have branched off from this alliance to form 
other hospitals, and sorely New Haven has needed them. At one time, and that 
rather recently, this city was far behind others of its size in its hospital 




XKW HAVKN HdSPITAL. XKW HA\KX 




THK (iRADUATKS rlAH. -NKW IIA\ l-A 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 237 

accommodations, and still its growth keeps up the pressure. To meet the need 
physicians of the homeopathic school founded Grace Hospital some twenty-two 
years ago, and though never oversupplied with funds, it has done an excellent 
work. A few years later the private institution known as Elm City Hospital, 
of wliirh Dr. Clarence E. Skinner was the inspiration, was started in a build- 
ing erected for its purpose at the southern end of Park street, and continues, 
under changed management, its able service. St. Raphael's Hospital, under the 
auspices of the Catholic Church, was founded soon after 1900, and has so well 
served the people that those who wish good treatment and care, seek it without 
paying attention to the limitations of religious creed. 

Of the physicians of New Haven in these days of the new development of 
Yale, it is natural that the dean of that school should be regarded as the leader. 
Dr. George Blumer has that position by right of eminent attainment, and with- 
out .jealousy. There are older physicians, of whom most persons would mention 
first Dr. William H. Carmalt, okl in practice, general and special, old also in 
the confidence, respect and affection of his fellow citizens. Dr. William C. 
Welch, of a long line of distinguished physicians, eminent in his profession, 
rarely fine in his personal character, devoted as are few men to the welfare 
of his fellows, true friend as well as reliable healer, is rounding out a long 
service for the people who love him. Dr. B. Austin Cheney, veteran of the war, 
sterling practitioner of the old school, a man -whom all New Haven honors for 
his personal as well as his profe.ssional qualities, completes a remarkable trio. 

A group of those who have finished their work is too distinguished to receive 
less regard. "Old Doctor Sanford" was not so many years ago one of the true 
type of "beloved physicians," whose presence did good like a medicine. His 
work is earrried on by Dr. Leonard C. Sanford, scholar, lover of nature, physi- 
cian of eminent attainments. New Haven still remembers with gratitude and 
tears Dr. Otto G. Ramsey, brilliant surgeon, sacrifice to the demand of the people 
which his skill created. A multitude of those whom he served for the pure love 
of humanity still grieves at the untimely ending of the work of Dr. AVilliam J. 
Sheehan. Dr. Jay W. Seaver, though his work was mo.stly with the university 
in an official capacity, was long a resident of New Haven, and many friends 
recall his work with tenderest memories. 

Two who stand out as surgeons maintain ably the high standard set by that 
department of healing. Dr. William P. Yerdi has demonstrated a skill which 
has spread his fame far beyond the bounds of his connnunity. Dr. William P. 
Lang, younger, with already an enviable reputation for eai-eful, skillful work, 
is coming to fill a large place in the needs of New Haven, and to be demanded 
in many other communities. There is a group of notable specialists, from whom, 
in incomplete justice, may be selected Dr. Oliver T. Osborne, Dr. William C. 
Wurtemburg, Dr. Henry W. Ring, Dr. John E. Lane and Dr. Allen R. 
Diefendorf. 

Dr. Stephen J. Maher, also a specialist, has made a place for himself of int<>r- 
national as well as state and local eminence by his study of tuberculosis. This 
has justly placed him at the head of the state commission, in which position he 



238 A MODERN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN 

is doing a work for the healing of humanity and the lengthening of life which 
this generation will inadequately appreciate. Dr. Charles J. Bartlett, whose 
work at present is largely with the Medical School, has in recent times served 
New Haven in other highly important ways. His work as president for several 
years of the Civic Federation has already been mentioned. His service for New 
Haven's health in connection with the health department covered several years, 
and its fruits are abundant. In this couneetiou it should be said that, though 
his name appears less prominently in the reports, the contribution of Dr. C.-E. 
A. Winslow of the University to the same cause is not a small one. And Prof. 
Yandell Henderson, through the Medical School and through his frequent pub- 
lic service in such causes as charter revision, is a citizen not to be overlooked. 

Dr. Nicola Mariani is a physician whose appeal is naturally to the Italian 
people, and who delights to serve them. But not a few iu New Haven know 
him as a gentleman of the rarest breeding, a man of high public spirit, as well 
as a physician of skill. Dr. Isaac N. Porter is recognized iu the fraternity as 
of eminent ability, and though his practice is mostly wnth his own people, there 
are not a few of all races who, seeking healing, are fain to disregard the 
color line. 

New Haven had 218 physicians in 1917. Each has his place, and many who 
regard him as the best in the city. But no list would be complete without such 
names as those of Dr. C. Purdy Lindsley. Dr. William P. Baldwin, Dr. Arthur 
N. Ailing, Dr. Leonard W. Bacon, Dr. Henry P. Sage, Dr. E. Reed Whittemore, 
■ Dr. Gustavus Eliot, Dr. Edwin C. il. Hall, Dr. Burdette S. Adams and Dr. E. 
Herman Arnold, the last further distinguished by his conduct of the New Haven 
Normal School of Gymnastics. 

VI 

In many directions have citizens of New Haven lu'ought honor as well as 
service to their city. The shortest path to fame, oftentimes, is by way of poli- 
ties. There already has been some mention of the contributions which the legal 
profession has made to politics and government. Its three governors in two 
decades do not, however, exhaust New Haven's list. The business ranks con- 
tributed one governor in Rollin S. Woodruff. Prom 1907 to 1909 he was the 
state's chief executive, one of the most independent, upright and forceful gov- 
ernors of the past two decades. Previous to that time he was lieutenant gov- 
ernor for a term, and still earlier he was state senator. In New Haven he ha-s 
been president of the Chamber of Commerce, and one of the city's foremost 
business men. 

The most distinguished New Haven tigure in national politics in this period 
was doubtless Hon. Nehemiah D. Sperry, now resting from his labor. His 
work in New Haven as a builder, public officer and postmaster belongs to an 
earlier period, but from 1895 till 1909 he was congressman from the Second dis- 
trict, and performed at Washington the crowning service of a useful career. 
New Haven was not the birthplace of Hon. John Q. Tilson, who in a way has 




(t)XXKCTKLT SAVIX(;S BANK. Xi:\V HA\ KN 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 239 

come into his place, but he. aftei- being member of the State Legislature and 
speaker, is in this time of war performing a notable service as congressman from 
the New Haven district. 

A sterling citizen, whose longest work in New Haven has been as a manufac- 
turer, occupied the mayor's chair in 1897-99. The biographical works of the 
time are silent about Frederick B. Farnsworth, because he wishes them to be. 
It is liis way. He didn't please the politicians when he was mayor, which means 
that he pleased the people. He has always lived a plain, rugged, public serving 
life. He has .succeeded in his business, and is now able to sit back and watch 
for opportunities to do good. His eyesight is keen, and he seldom misses one. 
That the general public so seldom knows of it is. perhaps, a tribute to his dis- 
creet ability. 

There was another mayor for a brief time wiio deserves better than per- 
functory mention. When tragedy removed ]\Iayor Rice from his place in 1916, 
Samuel Campner was president of the Board of Aldermen. Automatically 
called to the mayor's chair, aft.erward confirmed in the office by legislative act, 
he performed a difficult task with a fidelity, a modesty and an ability that 
earned for him the enduring gratitude of the discerning, though they were too 
few to re-elect him. 

New Haven had, in the sc<^ou(l decade of the twentieth century, a demonstra- 
tion of the possibilities of citizenship whicli was at once pathetic and inspiring, 
an example of public service which was both thrilling and tragic. New Haven 
is a democratic city, but the office of mayor has usually gone to some man of 
well recognized prominence, either in public affaii's or in politics. When Frank 
J. Rice was named for the office in 1909. he was knuwn mostly as the popular 
president of the Young lien's Republican Club, a manager of some large cen- 
tral properties for a prominent real estate owner, a former member for several 
terms of the Board of Councilmen. 

He came to the chair of mayor a plain, simple, sincere citizen, with the desire 
to serve his city uppermost in his mind. He made no promises except the com- 
prehensive one to do his best. He did, however, outline a few of his plans. One 
of them was to give New Haven some better sidewalks, and that, though one of 
the least of his achievements, is characteristic of his administration of city 
affairs. He found the sidewalks of ancient and billowy brick, of cracked and 
crumbling asphalt, of unfinished gravel. In less than six years he had, against 
indifference, prejudice and selfish opposition, given New Haven more than two 
hundred miles of modern concrete sidewalk, and accomplished this simply by 
keeping at it. 

For almost seven years Frank J. Rice gave of his best to serve New Haven. 
It should have been eight full years, but he wore out before the end of his time. 
In the truest, highest sense he spared not himself. He took his office and his 
opportunities seriously — too seriously— perhaps. He was never satisfied unless 
a problem was solved in the best possible way, unless the veiw best appointment 
was made, unless he could give his most intense attention to every subject. He 
responded to every call the people made upon him. He grew into the heart of 



240 A MODERN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN 

the people. They re-elected him in 1911 by a plurality of 2,029. He gave them 
another term of unselfish service. In 1913, a definitely democratic year, he was 
again elected, by a plurality of 1.201. In 1915 the city broke all records by 
re-electing a mayor to a fourth term, and the mayor wa.s Frank J. Rice, this 
time by a plurality of 2,013. 

Bv the time New Haven had really come to know and appreciate Mayor Rice 
it lost him. Too late his friends found they had been asking too much of him. 
Too late his political critics hushed their clamor when they found they had 
worried his sensitive spirit to the breaking point. Jilidway in the first year of 
his fourth term he broke under the strain, and though for several months he 
made a brave elfort to rally, he came back no more to the desk in City Hall where 
he had so faithfully done the greatest of his life's work, and on January 18, 
1917, his brave spirit rose to the land of his eternal ideals. 

It was seven days later, in the course of an address before an association of 
Yale alumni in another state, that President Hadley went out of his way to, 
pay to Mayor Rice what, taken in its settings, must be considered a remarkable 
tribute. He was speaking on the ideals of public service which Yale teaches, 
and had mentioned the union of New Haven and Yale in the gi-eat anniversary 
Pageant of the previous fall, when he said: 

"The mayor of New Haven did not participate in this celebration. He had 
done much to help in the earlj' stages, but at the time when it came he was on 
his death bed — dying in office after having honorably served the city for several 
terms. He was not a Yale man, but with each successive year of his ofSce he under- 
stood Yale better and worked more actively with us. \Vith the announcement of 
his death came a message from the city asking if the funeral might be held in Yale 
university. On Sunday last thirty thousand citizens of New Haven, of every 
nationality, lined the streets to see the body of the chief magistrate borne from 
the City Hall to Woolsey Hall, and then to its last resting place. Thus was 
celebrated the last scene in the drama w-hich commemorates the coming of Yale 
to New Haven. The Pageant had a worthier epilogue than human hand could 
have written." 

VII 

There were in New Haven at the beginning of 1900 ten banking institutions, 
the outgrowth of a single bank started in 1795.* There are as many now, of the 
same class, but their arrangement is somewhat different. Then eight of these 
were national banks, centrally located, of the familiar sort. Now there are only 
five national banks. Of the survivors, one is a combination of three banks and 
another of two. To make up the number, there are a state bank and four trust 
companies, one of which is a combination of two. 

In 1899 the ten banks had a combined capital of $4,014,800, and surplus and 
profits of $1,922,913. Now the ten institutions have capital amounting to 

* The banking data are necessarily of 1917. 




FIRST NATIONAL BANK, M;\\ ilA\ I;\ 




THE UNION AND NEW H.WEN TRUST UU-MPANV, .NEW HA\ EN 



l\ 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 241 

$4J75,000, and surplus and profits of $4,457,392. The oldest and now the largest 
is the New Haven National, combination of the old New Haven National, the New 
Haven County National and the City banks, with capital of $1,200,000 and an 
equal surplus. Its president is Ezekiel G. Stoddard. The present First National 
is an amalgamation of that bank with the Yale National, effected in 1917. It 
has a capital of a million dollars, and surplus of $650,000. Thoma.s Hooker, 
of the old Hooker family, one of the leaders in New Haven's banking develop- 
ment, is president. The bank next in strength is the Second National, which 
occupies the finest banking and ofifiee building in the city. It has a capital of 
$750,000 and a surplus of $700,000. Samuel Hemingway, another of the fore- 
most bankers of the city, is its president. The Merchants National Bank, now 
well established in the old Ford Building at the corner of Chapel and State 
streets, which it has made into a modern banking house, has capital of $350,000 
and a .surplus of $250,000. Its president is Harry V. Whipple. The National 
Tradesmen's Bank, of which George Jl. Gunn. of ]Milford, is president, has a 
fine banking house on Orange Street, capital of $300,000 and a surplus of 
$400,000. The single state bank is the Mechanics, a strong and growing insti- 
tution, which in 1910 completed one of the fine bank buildings of the city, on 
Church Street. It has a capital of $300,000. surplus and profits of $458,709, 
and William H. Douglass is chairman and vice pi-esident. The active president 
is Frank B. Frisbie. 

The old Union Trust Company was the pioneer of that sort of institution in 
New Haven, and for some time held the field alone. Early in the nineteen 
hundreds the New Haven Trust Company was formed, and in 1909 completed 
a fine banking house on Church Street; Within two year.s after that it formed 
a combination with the older institution, and is now the Union and New Haven 
Trust Company, of which Eli Whitney is president. It has capital of $650,000, 
and surplus and profits of $663,429. The People's Bank & Trust Company, 
formed soon after this union, aims to be a popular institution, and does an 
excellent service. It has capital of $50,000, and surplus and profits of $132,077. 
Its president is Joseph E. Hubiuger. 

The other trust companies are the outgrowth of the banking needs of ex- 
panding New Haven, and account as well for the consolidation of some of the 
central banks. Tlie Broadway Bank & Trust Company was founded in 1913 
to serve the business men of the western and northern parts of the city. It has 
capital of $100,000, and John B. Kennedy is its president. William M. Parsons, 
who about the time of its founding retired from the Chamberlain Furniture and 
Mantel Company, is its secretary and treasurer. The other trust institution 
is the American Bank & Trust Company, founded a year or two later to 
serve business Fair Haven. It has capital of $75,000 and a surplus of $3,177. 
Its president is Myi-on R. Dunham. 

There are three savings banks, all of them of maturity and standing. The 
oldest is the Connecticut, but the strongest is the New Haven, while the National 
makes a substantial third. Nineteen years ago they had combined deposits of 



242 A MODERN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN 

$18,278,458. Last year the combined deposits of these three were $44,391,254. The 
trust companies, with the exception of the first, have savings departments, and 
the combined deposits of the six banks are $45,540,726. The New Haven has 
$21,062,000, and its president is Lewis H. English. The Connecticut Bank has 
$18,644,926; its president is Burton Mansfield. The National has $4,684,328. 
The three trust companies together have savings deposits of $1,149,472. 

About 1914 there was founded in New Haven a bank on the Morris plan, 
backed by some of the soundest and ablest business men. It is a popular loan 
institution, but an investment bank as well, and its management and prosperity 
have demonstrated that it fills a needed place in New Haven finance. It has 
a capital of $100,000. John T. Manson is its president, and Judson D. Terrill 
its secretary and manager. 

New Haven has never been an insurance center, but it has been represented 
in that business since its early years. The Security (fire) Insurance Company 
has had nearly a half century of confidence and prosperity, and now has a 
capital of $1,000,000. with a surplus of $836,745. Its president is John "W. 
Ailing. 

New Haven's Building and Loan Association is a conservatively managed and 
prosperous institution, with assets of $359,727. Its president is F. L. Trowbridge. 



The oldest of the public service institutions is the New Haven Gas Company, 
founded in 1847. It now lights and heats, in addition to New Haven, the 
towns of Branford, p]ast Haven, North Haven, West Haven, Hamden. Orange 
and Milford, including all the neighboring shore resoi'ts, a total population 
of more than 185,000. It has an authorized capital of $10,000,000, and its 
outstanding capital is half of that. Its president is Charles H. Nettleton, a 
re.sident of Derby, but aside from him its directorate is composed of New Haven 
men. George D. Watrous being vice president. 

The New Haven Water Company was incorporated in 1849, by New Haven 
men, to serve the city with water. It has been conducted so honestly and ably 
that it stands for all the country as one of the best arguments against the public 
ownership of utilities of this sort. Eli Whitney is its president and treasurer, 
and has for many years been in large measure its genius, though the company 
owes much of its standing to the able management of David Daggett, who was 
its secretary for many years previous to his death in 1916. From eight great 
reservoirs, holding in the aggregate three billions of gallons of water, the com- 
pany serves now the needs of New Haven, East Haven, Hamden, Branford, 
Milford, We.st Haven and some contiguous territory. Its high pressure service 
is from the pumping stations near Whitney and Saltonstall lakes, from which 
the higher ground in its territory is supplied. The other service reservoirs 
feed by the gravity system, but some of the largest are storage reservoirs. In 
addition to the two lakes mentioned, water comes from Wintergreen and Maltby 




-XATIOXAL SAMMiS liAXK. XKW ILWEN 




MKCHAXICS BANK. XKW HA\'EN 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 243 

lakes, from Fair Haven, and the three reservoirs in Woodbridge, Sperry, Daw- 
son, and newst of all, Lake Watrous, partly in Woodbridge and partly in 
Bethany. The company's authorized capital is $5,000,000. 

The United Illnminating Company, a utility of comparatively recent origin, 
is a consolidation of companies in New Haven and Bridgeport, and chiefly serves 
these two cities and the towns between, though it now reaches in all directions 
from the cities. It has a capital of $3,000,000, and James English of New Haven 
is president. 

In the center of a great railroad system. New Haven is greatly influenced by 
the railroad and the men who make it. Two of the constructive presidents of 
the road in the modern period have been Charles S. Mellen, who had his residence 
here, and Howard Elliott, who though too Imsy in his brief term to spend much 
time in New Haven, proved a good citizen. Many other prominent officials of 
the road have lived in the city, and participated in its activities. Two who 
have especially .joined in its life have been Vice President Edward G. Buckland 
and Lucius S. Storrs, president of the Connecticut Company. 

The old-time tavern long ago has disappeared, but the modern hotel which 
has come in its place has much to do with the making of a community. New 
Haven, in the pa.st ten years, has seen two of its old hotel landmarks go, one 
the "Tontine," which stood at the corner of Church and Court streets, razed to 
make room for the new postoffice, and the other the "New Haven House" of 
more than a generation. The latter is replaced by New Haven's superior mod- 
ern hotel, the Taft, eri'cted in 1911, and securing its name from otn-ious sources. 
Louis E. Stoddard had as much as any New Havener to do with its financing 
and erection, but ilerry & Boomer, a well known hotel management firm, has 
contributed materially to the reputation it has as one of the best hotels in New 
England. 

At the gates of the new railroad station that is to be the Gardes several 
years ago reconstructed the old hotel which William H. Garde made famous in 
1896 and the years following, and his .son. Walter S. Garde, is conducting there 
now one of the best appointed and managed hotels in the state. 

VIII 

New Haven has had newspapers ever since 1755, when a publication whose 
name and substance seems to have been lost was established. It w^as so good as 
to die at the age of nine. Only two years later, in 1766, a small newspaper 
with the large name of the Connecticut Journal and New Haven Post Boy was 
established. That, by evolution to the Journal and Courier and the Journal- 
Courier, is today edited by Colonel Norris G. Osborn. The Courier, as New 
Haven calls it. has since 1880 been published by John B. Carrington and the 
Carrington Pulilishing Company, though the coming of Colonel Osborn in 1907 
brought considerable new- capital into the concern, and gave the paper a new 
spirit and new life. 



244 A MODERN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN 

The New Haven Register was founded by Joseph Barber in 1812, and for 
more than half a century was known throughout New Haven county and the state 
as a staunch organ of the Democratic party. The party left it in 1896 to follow 
after Bryan, and later, under a changed ownership, it became independently 
Republican. It became a daily in 1842. Not far from that time it passed into 
the hands of Minott A. Osborn, who made it one of the leading newspapers 
of Connecticut. It remained in the hands of him and his son until 1895, when 
a stock company was formed which purchased the family's interests. Colonel 
Norris G. Osborn remained as its editor until 1907, when he went to the Journal- 
Courier. 

The New Haven Palladium was born in 1828, a Whig in politics, a Repub- 
lican when that party was formed. It departed this life in 1911, leaving many 
friends to mourn it. Between those years it had an honorable and valuable 
existence, being as ably edited, perhaps, as any newspaper has ever been in New 
Haven. Something of its quality is indicated by mention of such names of its 
editors as James F. Babcoek, Cyrus Northrop. A. H. Byiugton, later consul at 
Naples, Colonel William M. Grosvenor, Abner L. Train and Amos P. Wilder, 
afterward consul-general at Hongkong. 

The ITnion, New Haven's original one-cent newspaper, was founded by 
Alexander Troup in 1871. Originally appealing to the class called the work- 
ingmen, at times in its career reputed sensational, it has lived down all its false 
reputation, and taken its place in even rank with other newspapers of New 
Haven. Alexander Troup, long one of New Haven's valuable citizens, made it 
a power in his time, and his sons have still further advanced it. It has been 
Democratic for the most part, and its editor was a close friend of William Jen- 
nings Bryan. 

The Morning News was born of a composing room strike in 1882, and for 
sixteen years lived a somewhat precarious existence. It had, however, a high 
standing at one time, under the ownership of Professors Baldwin and Henry 
W. Farnham, who made it the high expositor of political reform. But for six 
years a city of 90,000 people had six newspapers, and it was too many. The 
Morning News met the inevitable fate of the overcrowded. 

About 1891 the Republicans of New Haven felt that they needed a party 
newspaper in the evening field, and founded the Evening Leader. Colonel 
Charles W. Pickett was made its editor, and continues in that position until now, 
though there have been various changes in ownership. It continues to be a 
Tlepubliean newspaper. About 1910 its name was changed to the Times-Leader. 

The Saturday Chronicle was founded in 1902 as a weekly review of New 
Haven politics, society and special events. It has been a well published, well 
conducted journal in many ways, but it has not been especially prosperous. 
For several years Clarence H. Ryder published it, but in 1912 Leo R. Hammond, 
who had just resigned the Palladium to its fate, took over its management. It 
is now the official organ of the Civic Federation. 

New Haven has five scientific or technical journals, two each of Italian, 




BKOAIJW AV BANK AND TRl'ST (X>MPAXV. NKW HAVKX 




NEW HA\"EX S.WIXGS BANK. NEW HAVEX 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 245" 

German and labor newspapers, and nine Yale publications. Not all of these are 
exclusively of interest to the college. The Yale News, for instance, the oldest 
college daily, is a newspaper of value to the whole community. It was first 
issued as a four-page, nine-by-twelve sheet in January of 1878. No names ac- 
companied the publication as a guarantee of good faith, but it is known to have 
been projected liy Frank V. 3IcDonald and Herbert W. Bowen, 78. The former 
was a man of independent means and independent spirit, disapproving of certain 
college secret societies, and it was pretty well understood at the time that he 
started the News for the purpose of guying the senior societies Skull and Bones 
and Scroll and Keys. The position of the News was stated in a two-column 
article published in March of its first year, which began: "We have been asked 
what motive we could have for such a relentless persecution of senior societies. 
What is the use of grinding them so unceasingly?'' The article then proceeded 
to give emphasis to what was conceived to be the undemocratic characteristics 
of the society system and the consequent injury to the great body of students. 
But this was a passing phase of the News, interesting as it is in connection with 
its foundation. Within two months the founders had turned the paper over 
to S. M. Moores, now the Hon. Morrill Moores, member of congress from Indiana, 
who ran it under his own name. In the forty years since it has had a sometimes 
strenuous but always progressive existence, and today it is not only the oldest 
but the best college daily published, a newspaper model for those who would 
publish most in least space. 

The Yale Alumni Weekly was founded in 1891, and Pierre Jay of '92 had 
as much to do with its founding as anybody. It was intended, as a weekly 
edition of the News, to gather up especially good bits of college information and 
pass them on to busy graduates. Lewis S. Welch took the management in 1896, 
and published the Weekly for the following ten years, shaping it gradually to 
its present useful form. The Yale Publishing Association, which then took it 
over, has with Edwin Oviatt as editor and George E. Thompson as business man- 
ager developed the publication into most admirable form, in which it finds 
increasing favor with Yale graduates and many others. Both are sons of New 
Haven, and among its most useful citizens. Mr. Oviatt performed in 1916 a 
historical and literary service for which Yale and New Haven must increasingly 
praise him, in his book "The Beginnings of Yale," a work of immense value 
and a well told story. Mr. Thompson, who has shown himself a manager of high 
ability, is unsparing of himself and his time in many forms of public service, 
having recently been made treasurer of the Young Men's Christian Association. 

The Yale Review, a quarterly now published by the same association, is a 
siirvival in name only of an earlier magazine, and is now in its eighth year 
under the new management. It has in that time taken a high place as a maga- 
zine of international importance, of whose production New Haven is justly proud. 

The "art preservative" in New Haven antedates the newspaper only by a 
year. It has a long and detailed history, full of ups and downs, but the fittest 
of those who have made it have survived. Early newspapers, and demands 



246 A MODERN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN 

of the college for printing, furnished the business for a score of concerns which 
in the century following 1754 had their day and ceased to be. The oldest present 
firm is Tuttle, Morehouse & Taylor, which dates substantially from 1851. The 
men who have made it a great institution in our time are Cornelius S. More- 
house, a printer of the highest skill and finest ideals, a contemporary and friend 
of Tiieodore L. DeVinne, and George H. Tuttle, son of the original Tuttle of 
the firm, now its head and manager. This firm, with a wonderful record of 
achievement, ranks high among the printers of America. 

Another printing firm of more than state importance exalts New Haven in 
the publication world. Its progenitors began to print directories in New Haven 
a.s early as 1840. Price, Lee & Company, now incorporated as the Price & Lee 
Company, was organized in 1873 as a publishing firm. A strictly printing firm, 
the Price, Lee & Adkins Company, was organized in 1889. The publishing name 
i-cmains tlie same today. Tlie printing house was reorganized in 1915 as the 
Wilson H. Lee Company, which reveals the name of the man who for nearly 
forty years has made the business in both departments. The house now issues 
forty-one directory publications, which serve about sixty-three cities and towns 
in Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Hampshire and New York. 
Another of the old firms, engaged in newspaper making, is the Carrington 
Publishing Company, which for more than half a century has issued the Journal- 
Courier. It has a history going back to 1852. 

New Haven has forty-six printing houses at present, some of them long estab- 
lished, but more of them of recent growth, though doing, for the most part, 
the good work which the standard of tlie leaders requires. Among these leaders 
are the Whaples-Bullis Company, Van Dyck & Company, the Tuttle Color Print- 
ing Company, the Ryder Printing House, the Ilarty Musch Press, S. Z. Field 
and Bradley & Scoville, the last being also blank book maiuifacturers. 

IX 

Great among the makers, in a city whose manufactories are so important 
as are New Haven's, are the men who make those industries and direct their 
course. Not a few of these men, much in every work for the city's advancement, 
have repeatedly been mentioned. The genius of the gi-eat Winchester industry 
for man.y years, a Ijusiness man to whom it owes nuich of its growth, is Thomas 
(!. Bennett. Though now out of the active management, his work is well con- 
tinued in these days by his son, Winchester Bennett. To Henry B. Sargent is 
naturallj' and righth' ascribed much of the success of the great firm with which 
he has since 1871 been identified, but his work for the welfare of New Haven 
has been broader even than that. Walter Camp's activities have touched New 
Haven at many points, but he has given first allegiance to the clock making firm 
which Hiram Camp had so great a part in founding. No less valuable a citizen 
is Edwin P. Root, who has a large part in the carrying on of this business, but 
finds time for many New Haven activities besides. He has been in the clock 




SECOND NATIONAL BANK, NEW H-WEN 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 247 

business since 1877. His interests are varied, and not the least of his service 
for New Haven is as director of the Public Library. 

The Acme Wire Company, which within a short time has had a wonderful 
development, and is now one of the leading industries, owes a large part of its 
success to the personal executive ability as well as the capital of Victor M. Tyler, 
its president and treasurer. Next to him Edgar L. Hartpence, its masterly 
general manager, has had much to do with raising it to a concern employing 
almost a thousand men. Both are citizens whom New Haven values for many 
other reasons. The work of Max Adler and Isaac M. Ullman in developing their 
great industry, and their part in the upbuilding of New Haven, are well known. 
Henry L. Hotchkiss and H. Stuart Hotchkiss have been powers aside from their 
connection with the city's rubber industry. Howard E. Adt, one of the geniuses 
of the Geometric Tool Company, is a citizen whoju New Haven prizes highly, 
while Percy K. Greist of the Greist Manufacturing Company has been foremost 
in many efforts for the good of New Haven. John B. Kennedy, conspicuous for 
high citizenship, patriotic leadership and banking ability, makes it his principal 
business to direct the English & Mersick Company, makei's of lamps and car- 
riage hardware. 

Andrew R. Bradley, George P. Smith and Theodore R. Blakeslee are the 
men behind New Haven's leading confectionery industry, and all are citizens 
of service and progress, ilr. Bradley recently passed from earthly activities. 
Mr. Blak<?slee, youngest of three brothers who have been very much in the making 
of New Haven, is a man of high ideals, who is ever ready to serve the public good. 
Harry B. Kennedy, president of the Hoggson & Pettis Manufacturing Company, 
is active in church and public work, a sincerely helpful citizen. Samuel R. Avis, 
though a veteran manufacturer, is best known through his valuable service for 
years at the head of the board of public library directors. Louis C. Cowles, head 
of one of New Haven's sterling firms, C. Cowles & Company, which makes carriage 
hardware, is a gentleman and a citizen of tlie fine old school. Clarence B. Dann, 
of Dann Brotliers, Joseph E. Hubinger, head of a large starch industry, and Ed- 
win S. Swift, thoroughbred manufacturer and whole-hearted citizen, are other 
members of a great company. 



Many merchants have made New Haven, which was intended by its founders, 
it will be remembered, as a great trade center. Their ideals have been more 
than realized. Men have gone on and names have changed, but many a business 
has continued the policy of its founders since far back in the last century. 
Older citizens well remember A. C. Wilcox, later A. C. Wilcox & Company, 
whose store on Chapel, between Orange and State, was deemed one of the great 
trading centers half a century ago. After Mr. Wilcox's death, it became Howe 
& Stetson, and was greatly enlarged. There was another evolution in 1906, 
when the business was purchased by Shartenberg & Robinson. It is now Sharten- 



248 A MODERN HISTORY OP NEW HAVEN 

berg's, and Henry M. Shartenberg, an able citizen as well as merchant, is its 
directing force. An older department firm is the Edward Malley Company, 
now well advanced in the second half of its century. At or near the corner of 
Chapel and Temple streets it has been since Edward Malley the elder started 
in a little country store building. Through successive managements, generally 
under Malley financing and control, even if under other names, it has progressed 
to its present degree of size and efficient service. Walter E. Malley is the present 
head of the corporation. Mendel and Freedman have for approaching thirty years 
conducted a popular department store on Chapel Street, and are old merchants 
as well as respected citizens, with a remarkably efficient and modern store at 
the present time. What was Brown and Bolton, then was F. M. Brown & Com- 
pany, and since 1898 has been Gamble & Desmond, is one of the sterling firms of- 
the city, now conducted by the second generation of its founders. Such a ' ' hall- 
mark" store as one expects to find in a conservative community like New Haven 
is the Charh^s Monson Company, established under its present name in 1892, 
doing business on the south side of Chapel Street below Orange. Its present 
head is Charles M. AValkei-, an influential and progressive citizen. 

In many other lines New Haven has had able merchants, who have labored for 
the public good as well as for their own advantage. There was Nathan T. Bush- 
iiell, whose hardware store was always a place for superior goods; another Bush- 
nell, younger, but of the same family, has long lieen prominent in the wholesale 
grocery trade; C. S. Mersick established a I'emarkable firm for the wholesale 
and retail distribution of building and plumbers' hardware, and it has been 
advanced in recent years, as C. S. Mersick & Company, former Governor Wood- 
ruff being its present head. John E. Bassett & Company is the modern continua- 
tion of a firm- with considerably more than a century of existence, which is now 
more efficient than ever in the sale of sterling hardware. George J. Bassett is 
its present head. Edward P. Judd was long "the bookseller" of New Haven, 
a man of wonderful ability, and a firm he founded still leads. Frank S. Piatt 
is identified with a farm supply and seed business which has a wide reputation. 
The Chamberlain Company, which the late George R. Chamberlain and William 
'M. Parsons made a leader among furniture firms, is now headed by Robert 
R. Chamberlain, son of the former. Frederick Meigs founded a prominent 
clothing business, which still bears his name, and Colonel George D. Post is the 
local head of another leading clothing firm. Miner. Read & Tullock and Dillon 
& Douglass are two wholesale grocery firms made up of men who have had a 
large share in the progress of New Haven. 



In a literal way some men have made the city which is today. This is the 
day of the engineer. Of men eminent in this profession New Haven has not a 
few. It is a great task to direct the engineering activities of the enterprise which 
the New Haven railroad has become in these days, so it may be safe to give its 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 249 

chief engineer, Edward CJagel, a leading place. He has deserved his success, and 
done great things for the city in which he lives. One of the oldest of New Haven 
engineers is Albert B. Hill. Some years ago he was city engineer, and in the 
years since he has steadily grown in experience and ability, always contributing 
to the best interests of New Haven. Many of the works of the New Haven 
Water Company stand as monuments to his ability. Frederick L. Ford had a 
high reputation when he came from Hartford in 1910, where he had been city 
engineer. He came to the same position here, and under him the office has been 
exalted and its work been made much more effective. 

Clarence Blakeslee is the engineering member of the firm of C. W. Blakeslee 
& Sons, and has made possible some of its most important eonstrnetion. He is 
a thoroughly able engineer as well as a citizen of high public spirit and fine char- 
acter. Perhaps his greatest work so far is the construction of a section through 
an unusually difficult piece of territory, of the Catskills-to-Manhattan aqueduct. 
Aside from this the greatest engineering work of the Blakeslee firm was the 
construction of the "cut" through the city for the New Haven road, and of 
this Dwight W. Blakeslee, another of the Blakeslee brothers, was the engineer, 
and lost his life in the work. Charles A. Ferry's ability as an engineer has 
already been told in the story of the Yale Bowl, which he designed. He was 
a thorough engineer before, or he could not have done it. His wide reputation, 
then achieved, has since been enlarged. He is a citizen, besides, of truly fine 
character. Charles C. Elwell's ability was abundantly recognized by the New 
Haven railroad before he came to the city, and has grown since until he was 
made, first engineer for, and later a member of the Connecticut Public Utilities 
Commission. New Haven values him highly as a man. Alexander Cahn has 
gi'own up in New Haven, and from the time he chose engineering as his pro- 
fession he has demonstrated that his choice was the right one. He has done 
much excellent w'ork, and the city owes him a great public debt. 



There are some makers who do not classify, for they stand by themselves. 
There is hardly an institution to which New Haven of the past half century 
owes more of abiding construction than to the Young Men's Christian Associa- 
tion. Organized in 1866, it has had a career of struggle, for the most part, but 
of late it has come into its own through service. In its beginnings small, always 
needing more resources than it had with which to meet pressing demands, it 
has been carried on from the beginning by men of sacrifice. Clarence B. Willis 
was its first secretary, and gave it a wonderful start. Living in rented rooms, 
not well fitted to its needs, for over three decades, it came about the beginning 
of the century into its own home, a commodious building on Temple Street. It 
had even greater burdens to carry then, and it staggered under the debt. Noble 
citizens, such as Pierce N. Welch and John T. Manson. substantially assisted 
it with funds, but it was not until after 1910 that it approached a supporting 



250 A MODERN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN 

basis. Some of its secretaries in the recent period liave been William G. Lotze, 
Robert S. Koss, and the present secretary, who has proved a saving executive, 
and led the association to its best work, Judson J. McKim. 

The makers of the future are not neglected. In the present decade New 
Haven has made the leadership of its boj-s a public work. The public has 
financed the Boy Scout movement and given it paid executive management. 
Over a thousand of the b(iys are organized in nearly forty troops, attached 
to churches and other organizations. For threet years, before the opening 
of the war, Gilbert N. Jerome was the first paid executive. In 1917 he resigned 
to enter the war aviation service, and the direction of the work fell heavily 
again on the veteran scout leader, James P. Bruce, though a loyal local council 
assisted greatly. Judge Mathewson was head of that council for several years, 
but in 1917 Clarence W. Bronson was chosen to the position. 



The story of the makers of modern New Haven could hardly be better rounded 
out than by mention of a service which the nation's history already has recog- 
nized, but which New Haven can never too intimately know. Among the finan- 
cial and indu.strial developers of New Haven in the days just before and after 
the Civil War was Cornelius Scranton Bushnell. native of Madison, an honored 
son by adoption of New Haven. He was a man of remarkable force, a patriot 
of saving vigor. How he saw the invention of John Ericsson, how he believed 
in its virtue for the saving of the nation, how he petitioned Washington in vain 
for financial backing for the first Monitor, how he found the money himself 
in his own resources and those of his friends, how he made it possible for the 
Monitor to appear at Hampton Roads at just the psychological time — these are 
l)ut the high points in the history of his service. 

Mr. Bushnell was not, as the world judges, a successful man. But there were 
those in New Haven who believed he achieved what was vastly more worthy of 
recognition than success. The outcome of their faith was the organization at 
New Haven, on March 9, 1899, of the Cornelius S. Bushnell National Memorial 
Association. The fruit of that association, in addition to the promotion of a true 
estimate of Mr. Bushnell's character and work, was the erection in May, 1906, 
on Monitor Park, at the junction of Chapel Street and Derby Avenue, of the 
Cornelius S. Bushnell Memorial. It is a simple shaft bearing at its crest a vic- 
torious eagle, and having inscriptions historically commemorative of the work 
of Ericsson and Bushnell. It is a public adornment to New Haven ; its erection 
is an ornament to the city's appreciation of patriotic service. 




BUSHNELL MEJIOEIAL. XEW HAVEN 



** 



CHAPTER XXY 
MILITARY NEW HAVEN 

THE governor's FOOT GUARD AND ITS ANCIENT AND MODERN SERVICE — THE HORSE 
GUARDS AND THE INFANTRY COMPANIES — NEW HAVEN 'S PLACE IN THE WAR 
SERVICE OF TODAY 

I 

The Davenport pilgrims came l)e;iriiig arms; they are bearing- arms today. 
They were a peaceful people, but they realized that peace must be conquered 
and maintained by the sword. There was no question of universal military serv- 
ice in those first days of the colony. Every male of able body between the ages 
of sixteen and sixty was to be provided by the state with "a muskett, a sworde 
and a bandalier" and the things that went with them, and turn out at stated 
times to be instructed in their use. Bearing arms, in those dajs when mortal 
foes surrounded, or were supposed to sui-rouud the elect on every side was a 
matter of self preservation. 

So every man was a soldier in the early days. The conditions l)red a inilitant 
race. There was no military class in the distinctive sense. Indeed, for the first 
century and a half of New Haven's liistory, its people did little fighting. But 
they were able to .send etfective forces, when need arose, for the aid of their 
neighbors and their governors in the Indian fights and in the French and Indian 
War. So it was that Connecticut was able to present some sturdy, well trained 
troops when the war of the Revolution came. 

That, however, is a matter aside from the present purpose, except as it bears 
on the fact that New Haven has had a continuous and effective military organ- 
ization from that time to the present. The main body of soldiers, trained from 
year to year, independent of the semi-private companies which from time to 
time were organized for social efl'ect and military glory, formed the "Train 
Baud'' or "Trained Band", the continuing military force out of which grew 
the Connecticut Second regiment, and on that New Haven bases the claim that 
this is the oldest military organization in America. Even without that distinc- 
tion, it has a history in whose value and nobility New Haven, always its central 
point of rendezvous, takes pride. 

In the main the history of military New Haven is a history of the forma- 
tion and growth of separate organizations, some of which have made their con- 
tribution and lost their indentity in this larger organization, some of which have 
never belonged to it. New Haven's oldest military organization is the Second 

251 



252 A MODEKX HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN 

Company, Governor's Foot Gnard. It is popular, in these days when we -eem 
to have made soldiering a matter of hard business, and shorn the soldier of all 
gold laee and gay color, to scorn the •'ancient and honorable" private company 
as a relic of a grandeur and glory that was. This is in forgetfulness of his- 
torical fact, as well as of the contribution which such companies have made to 
jtatriotic inspiration if not to actual service. The Govemor's Foot Guard has 
outlived this false contempt. It does not depend on tradition alone for its 
justification. 

On December 28, 177-4. sixty-five men of New Haven met and signed an 
agreement that they would study together, under competent instruction, the 
military exercise until such time as they believed themselves competent 
therein. That thereupon they would form themselves into a company, choose 
their officers and suitably equip themselves at their own expense. It does not 
appear whether th#se men had any premonition of the war that was so soon 
to come; if they had, they failed to show it in their declaration of intention. 

Be that as it may, they went ahead with commendable speed and enthusiasm 
in their ta.sk of training and organization. In less than two months they had 
progressed so far that they thought it proper to select their uniform, and that 
was no dun and undecorative sartorial prescription, either. Dress coat of 
scarlet, with collar and cuffs, silver buttons, white linen vest, breeches and 
stockings, lilack half leggins. and small fashionable and narrow ruffled shirt 
were among its details. A month later they elected their officers. Benedict 
Arnold, as we well remember, then a druggist and sea captain, was made the 
company's captain and commander. Two weeks earlier this same sixty-five had 
prayed the General Assembly of Connecticut, then in session at New Haven, for 
a charter, and that document was gi-anted without delay. 

So it came about that this sturdy body of men, well officered, equipped and 
as their bett-ers testified, well trained, were ready for action when an emergency 
came. Their readiness made history for them. We are necessarily familiar with 
the action which they took consequent to the reverberation in New Haven of 
"the shot heard round the world." Private organization as they were, they 
drew themselves up in l)attle array and demanded powder from the public stores. 
Perhaps the selectmen were wholly within their rights in demurring, but the 
Foot Guards had that which was more effective than argument. They got the 
powder and they made quick time to Cambridge. 

They went promptly, but they did not go thoughtlessly. Almost all of the 
company went, though there was no compulsion. They went realizing that it 
might be to battle and blood. They responded to the call of freedom and of 
country. They resolved, as we know from a proclamation which they signed 
at starting, to go soberly, decently and in submission to authority. They did 
not, moreover, go as rebels to the authority of England. Their proclamation 
was not anticipatory of the Declaration of Independence, though it did have a 
little of that tone. An action -which they took just before starting on their 
march is still more significant, and had a gi-eat bearing on their later history. 




(iOVERNDR'S FOOT (iTAKl) ARMOKV, NEW HAVEN 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 253 

Filled with a sense of their responsibility, they lined up ou the lower Green and 
listened to words of counsel and admonition, as we may suppose, from the pastor 
of the North Church, Rev. Jonathan Edwards the younger. It is a matter for 
regret that these words were not preserved for us, but out of that address grew 
a Foot Guard custom of great value. It may be that there is something of the 
spirit of sport and show in the annual celebration, continued to this time by the 
company, of that start for Cambridge. It gives occasion for the entertainment 
of guests, for a gorgeous parade through the streets, for a review on the Green, 
for a feast at night. But it also gives occasion for a sendee in church, which 
is altogether of serious intent and effect. The patriotic music, the service of 
memorial for comrades deceased in the year, above all the sermon by the chaplain, 
make a most impressive and valuable occasion. The public is freely invited, and 
the discerning come. 

The company was not destined to see bloody service on that trip to Cam- 
bridge. The deed that precipitated the war was done before they arrived, and 
there was little for them to do, for the first fever had gone dowTi. Their records 
show that General Putnam accompanied tliem for the latter part of their march, 
but neither he nor they found much to do. They remained at Cambridge for 
three weeks, quartered in the splendid house from which the patriots had driven 
Lieutenant Governor Oliver because he was too friendly with the British. Then 
they marched back to New Haven. 

It may appear that the company had little influence on the progress of the 
Revolutionary struggle. Such was not the case. Boston and Cambridge were 
then tlie center of things. These clashes at Concord and Lexington were Init 
incidental, in the view of the time. It had not been decided whether the colonies 
should take up arms against England. The.v had little idea what their strength 
might be. But the appearance on the field of such a company as this, well 
armed and drilled and especially — what counted most of all in those days, 
though w-e may smile at it — gorgeous iu their uniform, had a tremendous moral 
effect. They were the only completely equipped company on the scene, the 
eqiial, it was said, to any of the British troops, and half a hundred men so 
equipped and drilled looked large in those days of small armies. 

The Foot Guards have always franklj- owned Benedict Arnold as their first 
commandant. He marched with the company to Cambridge. He did not. it 
seems, come back with them, but he had his honorable discharge. It was while 
in ^Massachusetts that he conceived the idea that the capture of Crown Point 
and Ticonderoga might be a serious interference with the British plans by inter- 
rupting communication with Canada, and he was commissioned by Massachu- 
setts a colonel to command such an expedition. The enterprise so appealed to 
the Foot Guai-ds that twenty members of the company elected to go with their 
captain. It was then that he parted with the company. That trip to Canada, 
while not a Foot Guard expedition, was cherished in the annals of the com- 
pany, and in 1911 the company celebrated it by a tour over the Canadian route 
■which Arnold and his followei-s took, being everywhere received by the now 
friendly Canadians with the extremest hospitality. 



254 A .MODERN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN 

The parcer of tlie Foot Guards since that first exiDedition has been in the 
main a peaceful one. The company has had its ups and downs, but generally a 
prosperous existence. It met General Washington on his way through New 
Haven to take command of the Continental troops, and escorted him as far as 
the historic "Neck Bridge," this being the first armed military escort tendered 
to the general. They had been compelled to make their Cambridge expedition 
under the name of the "New Haven Cadets," being technically rebels against 
the constituted authority. But only eight years later the General Asseml)ly 
showed that all was forgiven by ordering the selection of New Haven to deliver 
to the custody of the company sixty-four stand of arms, in recognition, it would 
seem, of their valiant service in time of war. 

On all occasions thereafter the company acted as the escort of the Governor 
whenever he was in the New Haven district, always participating with the First 
Company in inauguration events, and of late years tendering him a reception at 
New Haven each year. The company has also assiduously observed all those 
laws of hospitality which exist between organizations of this sort, no matter 
what distance divides them. When Lafayette visited New Haven in 1824 he 
was .suitably escorted by the Foot Guards. They have been the center of glory 
in many parades during their century and a half. The most cordial relations 
have existed between them and similar military bodies in other states. Early 
in the nineteen hundreds they were guests of the Richmond Blues at Richmond, 
and in 1908 the company returned the compliment, giving the Blues for three 
days the freedom and the joys of New Haven. Such are their ties with other 
companies that at the New Haven week parade in 1911 they were able to bring 
to New Haven for participation the most distinguished military companies from 
Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New York and New Jersey. 

The company has never avoided military service, of which it has had not 
a little experience. That same readiness to serve in actual war which took the 
company to Cambridge at the first has always been shown in the organization 
or in its individual memliers. Jointly and severally, the members of the com- 
pany declared their readiness for the defense of the home town in the War of 
1812. The company was called out in 1813 to quell a race riot at Long Wharf 
between Swedish and Portugiiese sailors on one side and American sailors on 
the other, and was effective. Twice the following year there was a scare 
of British invasion, aiul each time the company stood ready, but the point of 
actual warfare was not reached. The company participated in the fortification 
of Beacon Hill in 1814, and later the same year, when the enemy landed at Bran- 
ford, it assembled, but again the war failed to come to New Haven. 

The Foot Guard had a most honorable record in the years of the Civil War, 
though not distinctly under the name of the organization. The company be- 
came Company K attached to the Sixth regiment, C. V., and its muster roll 
shows three commissioned officers, thirteen non-commissioned officers and sev- 
enty-six privates. Captain Henry C. Gerrish headed the company at that time, 
and lost his life in the seiwice. along with ten others. The home organization 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 255 

was retained throughout the war, and th<} company was in service for seventeen 
days during the draft riots of 1863. 

In the Spanisli War, at the expense of the company, 341 men were enlisted, 
and an infantry company of 106 officers and men were prepared for serivee and 
equipped, ilany of the.se men entered the regular service for the Philippines 
or elsewhere in the years following. 

In the present war the company has furnished some memhers for the service, 
but its gi-eatest work has been as a home guard. Few thought ever to see the 
Foot Guards in khaki, but that was their garb in 1917 and the following year. 
They have be<^n practically on a war footing, and though most of the men were 
past the age for military service, they stood ready to be et¥ective in emergency. 
So the record of the company of participation in all the wars of this countiy's 
history is so far complete. 

The company has had many notable leaders in its fifteen decades. When 
Captain Arnold resigned, he was succeeded by Hezekiah Sabin, Jr., a New 
Haven merchant. James Hillhouse the first was the third commandant of the 
company, being followed in turn by Daniel Bishop and Nathaniel Finch. In 
1810 the major commanding was Luther Bradley. At the time of the reorgani- 
zation in 1893 Ben.jamin L. Brown was elected ma.ior, and held the position 
for several years. For some time previous to 1909 Ma.jor Frederick W. Brown 
was commandant, leading the company into one of its most prosperous periods. 
That year Captain George T. Hewlett was promoted to ma.ior, and for the 
following five years devoted himself with a zeal and enthusiasm greatlj' to be 
praised to the maintenance of the organization in accordance with its standing 
and history. He was succeeded for a year by Major Joseph A. Wooster, a 
descendant of General Wooster. In 1916 Major John B. Kennedy became com- 
mandant, and still holds the position. Under him the company has been main- 
tained at a high standard of morale and efficienc.v, altogether in harmony with 
its best traditions. Himself of Revolutionary ancestry, he fully appreciates the 
noble hi.story of the company he commands, and has admirably succeeded in 
instilling his own spirit into every member. To him is due in no snuill measure 
the admirable showing made in the present war emergency. 

II 

Militan- training went steadily on in the years after the Revolutionary War, 
but it was thirty-four years before another private company was raised. There 
were two companies of the Governor's Foot Guards, due to the fact that the 
seat of government alternated between Hartford and New Haven. So it came 
about that in 1808 New Haven men with a penchant for equestrian display 
thought that forty years was long enough for Hartford to have enjoyed the 
monopoly of a Governor's Horse Guard, and the Second Company, Governor's 
Horse Guard, was formed. It speedily became popular with men of sufficient 
means to furnish their own mounts and equipment — no light burden of ex- 



256 A MODERN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN 

pense, we niaj- believe. For the horse guardsman must not only have his own 
mount — and the horse had to be a live aud stylish animal — but a uniform that 
was wondrous to behold. It consisted, at the time of organization, of a blue 
suit, trimmed with buff and a hat with a long white plume. These "knights" 
were glorious enough for any governor. 

They had, in the first half of the century, many times of festivity and of 
glorv. But they lacked the historical distinction of the Foot Guards, so the 
prestige of the horsemen seems to have lapsed materially in the days preceding 
the Civil "War. That stimulation of military activity brought them back. The 
company was reorganized, and celebrated the achievement by new suits. At 
that time they are described as wearing a gray suit trimmed with red, black 
leather leggins and bearskin hats. The officers wore ehapeaux with plumes. 
The horses were decorated in harmon.y, being caparisoned with red collars and 
red pommels for their saddles. Thus I'estored, though they saw only nominal 
home guard duty during the war, they came into and remained in prominence. 
Toward the end of the century, however, they lapsed again. From which it 
naturally follows that about 1901 the Horse Guards were reorganized into cavalry, 
becoming a regular part of the state militia. This time they stole a march on 
Hartford, and became Troop A of the state cavalry organization. 

Troop A, in turn, had its valuable but brief existence. For something like 
fifteen years it was popular, and became strong enough to build its own armory 
at 865 Orange Street, the state failing to help with funds. The character of 
the gi-eat war having made cavalry superfluous. Troop A of New Haven, Troop 
M which was later organized and Troop B of Hartford were reconstructed into 
machine gunners. 

The first infantry organization of those which later became a part of the 
state's national guard was the New Haven Grays, as for a century they w-ere 
known. The company was organized in 1816, and was preparing to celebrate 
its centennial when great events began to upset all the plans of men and military 
organizations everywhere. It was from the start a first class company, made 
up of the finest young men in New Haven, well organized, well officered and 
well drilled. It was New Haven's "crack" company, living strictly up to the 
striking uniform which it adopted, whose color gave it its name. Its superiority 
was no mere matter of local opinion, as the state military records for years 
will testify, but a reality of devotion to duty, drill and marksmanship. 






In the years between its foundation and the Civil War the company lived 
the social life of the military organization of the time, entertaining and being 
entertained. Sophus Staples, a young lawyer, was its first captain. He left 
the city the following year, and was succeeded by Dennis Kimberly. At the 
opening of the Civil War the company offered itself in a body, and went out in 
the Second Regiment, Connecticut Volunteers, of which Alfred H. Terry was 
colonel. At that time E. Walter Osborne was captain. It returned to New 
Haven shortly after the battle of Bull Run, for it had volunteered for only 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 257 

three months. In 1862 it responded to the call for ninety-day volunteers, but 
its services were not required. Shortly after that a company was recruited in 
the name of the Grays for the Twenty-seventh Connecticut Volunteers, and 
several of its oflSeers went with it. 

Since the war it has had some of the best of its history, consistently main- 
taining its standard in the Connecticut military organization. Several years 
ago it k^came plain Company F of the Second Regiment, and at the time of 
the national reorganization of the militia was required to abandon its distinctive 
gray for khaki. It always retained its name until the final submergence which 
followed the outbreak of the present war. It went into service on the Mexican 
border in the summer of 1916 under the command of Captain Ellis B. Baker, 
Jr. Called into service again after the entrance of the United States into the 
war, it was merged in Company F of the First Regiment in the new One Hundred 
and Second, and left for France under the command of Captain Raymond B. 
Barnes of New Haven. 

In 1828 there was a strife in the Grays that resulted in another company. 
Charles E. Whittlesey expected to be elected captain that year, but the office 
went to another. He and his friends felt so strongly that the position belonged 
to him that they seeeded and formed another company, which they called the 
National Blues. Mr. Whittlesey was elected captain, but he declined the office, 
and Mason A. Durand was chosen. The company had an excellent organization 
and record in the years before the Civil War. It did not enlist in that war as a 
company, but the greater part of its members enlisted as individuals. After the 
war it was reorganized. In 1870 it became Company D of the Second Regiment. 
In 1884 Andrew H. Embler was its captain. For several years previous te the 
federalization of the militia George C. Freeland was captain. He went with 
the company to the Mexican border, and made so good a record there and in 
the year following that when the company went out as a part of the One hundred 
and Second, he was captain of the combined company. 

The remaining New Haven companies were for the most part the outgrowth 
of home guard needs in the Civil War, though to tliis the Sarsfield Guards, who 
afterwards became Company C of the regiment, should probably be considered 
an exception. This company, as it has in recent years been known, was formed 
in 1865, but it was the outgrowth of the Emmet Guards, which date back to 
1857. They had mostly disappeared in the years just previous to the Civil 
War. Its stress aroused the young Irishmen of New Haven, some of whom had 
formed the Emmet Guards, to the reorganization of the company immediately 
after the war, as the Sarsfield Guards. Under that name it had a fine record, 
which has since been maintained. The company became Company C of the 
Second Regiment. As such it went to the ]\Iexican border and showed up as 
real soldiers. It was a valuable constituent of the new Company C in the com- 
bined regiment that went to Prance in the fall of 1917. It took its captain, 
however, from the First regiment, Alfred W. Griswold of New Britain. 

At the beginning of the Civil War a company called the City Guards was 



258 A MODEKN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN 

formed which a year later became the New Haven Light Guards. It had a 
large part in home defense during the war, and many of its members served in 
different regiments at the front. After the war it was reorganized, and soon 
after became, as Company E, a unit of the Second Regiment. It had ite taste of 
war training at Nogales, and went into service in' France a year later under 
Captain Joseph E. Felsted of New Haven. 

There was organized during the Civil War part of a regiment of colored men, 
which called itself the Wilkins Guard, after its first leader. It equipped itself, 
accomplished a good organization, and as the First Separate Company was ad- 
mitted to the Second Regiment in 1879. It had participated in all the activities 
of the regiment thereafter until 1916. When the Connecticut troops were called 
for the Mexican service, this company was not included. Except so far as its 
members have enlisted with some of the colored troops at various points, it is 
not included in the present service. But it has an admirable history and record. 
Its present captain is Samuel W. Titus. 

The Machine Gun Company was organized about 1880, and had a good record 
in the twenty-seven years preceding the opening of this war. It had been largely 
recruited, in recent years, from New Haven citizens of Italian birth. It went 
into the war under the command of Captain John Shipke of Wallingford. 

The organization out of which grew the Second Regiment, formed in colonial 
days, has had a varied existence, but can be traced continuously. At present 
it seems lost in the maze of military forces in France, but it is in a positive man- 
ner preserved by the Second Regiment of the Connecticut Home Guard, of which 
Colonel J. Richard North is commander. That out of tliis regiment the Second 
Regiment of the Connecticut National Guard will be reorganized after the war 
is over is a contingency not at all improbable. 

The Connecticut Naval Battalion, now the Naval Militia of the Connecticut 
military organization, had its' beginning in 1893, when a single division was 
formed under Lieutenant Edward V. Reynolds of New Haven. It had grown to 
three divisions in 1897, and its commander was Edward G. Buckland. Its bat- 
talion headquarters has been New Haven fi'om the first. Its commander in 1917 
was Cassius B. Barnes of New Haven, and most of its battalion officers were 
from New Haven and vicinity. It has grown to five divisions and an aeronautic 
section, and is now doing service in the war as an auxiliary to the regular 
navy. 

Ill 

This record of the private and public military organizations of New Haven 
takes on a look of strange unreality against the background of the great war. 
Events of the yeai's 1917 and 1918 have altered all standards. New Haven has 
been a very important center of recruiting and war service and war work. 
Where something like a thousand men were two or three years ago in the military 
service of the state, there now are over four thousand in various branches of the 
nation's military service. In detail, these are: National Army, 1,023; 102nd 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 259 

regiment, 649; 101st, 103rd and 104th regiments, 160; Black Watch and First 
Connecticut, 130; Medical Corps, 200; Aviation and Engineers, 170; United 
States army, 870; Navy, 960. 

This makes a total of 4,162. It does not, of course, take into account those 
serving in the Home Guard, a number considerably exceeding, for New Haven 
and vicinity, tlie thousand or therealiout who made up the old contingent in 
the National Guard. Nor docs it indicate the other Jiundrcds, women as well as 
men, who at home are doing constant service directly for war purposes. These 
center in the organization known at the New Haven War Bureau of the Con- 
necticut State Council of Defense, of which Hon. John K. Beach is chairman, 
and Professor John C. Tracy director. 



CHAPTER XXVI 
THE PART OF WOMAN 

WOMEN AS INDIVIDU.VLS AND IN VARIOUS ORGANIZATIONS — THEIR REMARKABLE CON- 
TRIBUTION TO THE PREVENTION OF JUVENILE DELINQUENCY THE ACHIEVE- 
MENTS OP THE SOCIAL SERVICE DANCE COMMITTEE 



One may well imagine that when the tired pilgrims climbed from their 
boats of the tumbling sea to the solid if slippery terra firma of West Creek banks 
in that April of 1638, the men led the way. It was the order of the times. We 
hear little of the women in the histories of that day. But looking back now, it 
is impossible to imagine any of the activities of even that day in which women 
failed of a substantial if silent part. In the centuries since woman has had an 
unfailing influence in the development and the betterment of New Haven. In 
the period of which this history treats it has been an organized and recognized 
part. 

The men ran the churches of John Davenport's time. They continued to take 
an apparently great interest in them as long as they had political and govern- 
mental features. Later they lost their interest, in large measure. Thej' were 
content to elect the officers and fill all the conspicuous offices, but the doing of 
the detail work, and in some cases the raising of a good deal of the money, they 
presently became wholly willing to leave to woman. How woman accepted with- 
out challenge this burden thrust upon her, how for two centuries she performed 
her task for sheer love of the end to be sought, content to have all the honor and 
all the praise go to the men — these are matters of common record not only in New- 
Haven but elsewhere. 

Earliest in its period of influence, cumulative up to the present moment, her 
work in and through the churches must be put first in the record of woman's 
part in the l)uilding and shaping of New Haven. Women's home and foreign 
missionary societies are nmv in their second century. Women's aid societies, more 
especially for local work, are at the vei-y fcmndatioii of the growth and influence, 
and even of the continued existence of many, if not most, of the churches. And 
no one who regards thoughtfully the history of New Haven can fail to recognize 
how great a part the constantly increasing number of churches has had in its 
formation. For that, therefore, which most especially makes the character of 
the city we may .justly give woman eminent credit and praise. 

260 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 261 

It may have been forgotten that when in 1833, there w.as formed in New 
Haven a society for the creation and management of an asylum for orphans, the 
name given to it was "The New Haven Female Society for the Relief of Orphans, 
Half-Orphans and Destitute Children." There has been no difficulty, however. 
in recognizing that this institution known as the New Haven Orphan Asyluni 
was founded by women, has been largely supported by women and is in the main 
conducted by women. It was started with ilrs. Abram Heaton as its tirst presi- 
dent, in a cottage on Grove Street, near Church. Five years later it had to move 
to quarters on Oak Street to accommodate its growing work. To be sure, it was 
a mere man, James Brewster, who became the "angel" of the institution in 
1854 and built the beginning of the edifices which it still occupies on Elm Street, 
but he received his in-spiration from the unfailing work of the women. Men 
have helped, then and since. Men always used to help with their work and 
money in the annual donation days. James Brewster's son, Frederick F. Brew- 
ster, came to the rescue again in 1916, when the growth of the institution made 
it imperative that it have more room, he gave a large tract of land in Whitney- 
ville for the new plant, and gave a generous start to the $250,000 fund for new 
buildings. Men helped raise the rest of it. But when the new buildings, whose 
erection i.s delayed by war conditions, arc erected, women, as they have done 
from the tirst, will still cany on the noble work. And the foremost of the 
women, in this case, will be Miss Lina M. Phipps, who for years has been the 
guiding spirit of the institution. 

St. Francis, the Catholic institution which jointly with the oue just men- 
tioned, cares for the orphaned young of New Haven, was founded in 1865. Its 
business affairs are managed by a corporation consisting of all the Catholic pastors 
of the New Haven district which it serves, but the Sisters of Mercy do the actual 
work of the institution, and here again the women have been for half a century 
past laboring for the good of New Haven. 

It is distinctly stated that the Home for the Friendless, which for some years 
past has been located at Clinton Avenue in Fair Haven, was "started by benevo- 
lent ladies." By such it has been conducted ever since, and through them the 
money is raised for its support. Its original plan was to serve a piirpose some- 
what like that of the Florence Crittenton Home, but since the Crittenton insti- 
tution has come into .such adequate prominence, the Home for the Friendless is 
given opportunity to do a somewhat broader work, and cares for destitute wives 
with small children, for women without means who have become enfeebled in 
health, or have reached advanced years without friends or resources. It is, in- 
deed, in a large way what its name indicates. At the head of its board of man- 
agement is Jlrs. J. M. Greist. ^ 

The Florence Crittenton Home, established in the eighties, was for nearly 
thirty years on Oak Street at the head of Dwight, but in 1913 was enabled to erect 
on Campbell Avenue in West Haven a building more adequate for its growing 
work. Though one of the chain of homes which were started by a man, its 
inspiration was a woman, and women have of necessity carried on its work. 



262 A MODEKN HISTORY OP NEW HAVEN 

The Young Women's Christian Association was organized in 1880, and of 
course women were back of it. It was chartered in 1882, and shortly aft«r that 
acquired the building on East Chapel Street near Wooster Square out of which 
has evolved its present equipment. Miss Helena Wilcox, whose home was in Mad- 
ison, was identified with it in the earlier years. Last year a campaigii was con- 
ducted for securing funds for an enlarged building. It was successful, but like 
much work of this sort, it is being delayed for better labor and building con- 
ditions. 

In 1872 there was formed a society called the United Workers, of which 
women were the controlling factors and chief workers. The society did an excel- 
lent general work, but its most conspicuous activity for a part of its histoiy, 
was its conduct of a boys' club. This was started in 1875, and probably was the 
first boys' club formed in New Haven. It was supported and its workers paid 
through the efforts of the women. The value of its work is readily recognized. 

No more valuable work has ever been started by men or women in New Haven 
than the day nurseries, now the care of the Mothers' Aid Society. Nobody but 
a woman would have thought of the idea of saving homes from breaking up 
by providing for women suddenly thrown on their own resources for the sup- 
port of themselves and their children a place where those children might be 
cared for while they worked by day. The women pay a fee for this care, which 
saves their pride but does not support the work. The women of the society see 
to it that the deficit is made up. These nurseries have again and again been 
praised as a force for conserving the future citizenship of the city. There are 
three of them now, the Leila on Greene Street, the Hope of George Street and 
one for Italian children on Oak Street. The president of the Mothers' Aid 
Society is Mrs. Frank S. Butterworth. 

A work of similar nature is that of the Elm City Free Kindergarten society 
which provides for the care of young children who may not have satisfactory 
home conditions, or whose mothers may not be able to take care of them 
at all times of day. It has kindergartens at 49 Oak Street and 93 Water Street. 
Its president is Mrs. Henry Brewer. 

ilen and women have worked together in the Lowell House settlement work 
at 198 Hamilton Street, which has repeatedly been mentioned elsewhere, but 
the women have usually been in the majority. Its president is Prof. Henry 
W. Farnam, and Dr. Julia E. Teele is its secretary. 

The Visiting Nurse Association is primarily a work of women. Supported 
by private voluntary subscription, it sends trained nurse visitors wherever in 
the city they are most needed, usually for temporary service. The value of the 
work thus done in relieving sickness, caring for those who need more time and 
care than a physician can devote to them, and teaching habits of right living 
and disease prevention, is beyond computation. The president of this associa- 
tion is Miss Lillian Prudden, and the superintendent for some years past has 
been Miss Mary G. Hills. 

Such works as these are works of mercy and benevolence. Perhaps they 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 263 

are the most valuable that women have done in this community. But they are 
not all. For the work of women reaches to every field of endeavor in its con- 
stant course. Women, of course, have their patriotic societies here, and they 
are not patriotic in name only. The Daughters of the American Revolution 
have two chapters, of members worthy of their ancestry. The Mary Clap 
Wooster Chapter was orgajiized in 1893. and its present regent is Miss Emily 
Louise Gerry. It is now one of the largest chapters in New England, and in all 
its twenty-five years has done a consistently practical and earnest work. Such 
an endeavor as helping to finance the work of John Foster Carr in providing 
practical guidebooks for immigrants is a good example of what its members 
have done. A second chapter, the Eve Lear, was organized in 191.5, and as its 
founders were in part from the older chapter, its standing is equally high. Its 
regent is Mrs. John T. Manson. 

The New Haven Woman 's Club was organized in 1900 as the Mothers ' Club, 
which name may indicate something of its original purpose. It was to improve 
the welfare of the younger generation, to make New Haven a better place for 
it to live in. It has worked in many ways, educational, literary, social and 
other. About three years ago, feeling that it might broaden the appeal of the 
club, the name was changed to the New Haven Woman's Club. Its organizer 
was Mrs. Prances Sheldon Bolton. Its president in 1917 was Mrs. James 
Prior Wood. 

A younger association, in age and character, is the New Haven Girls' Club, 
which was organized in 1914. It has its headquarters at 14 Trumbull Street, 
with a large membership, and is doing a good work. 

The New Haven Council of Jewish Women exists to serve the welfare of 
women of that faith in and near New Haven, and has a worthy record of service 
for. the welfare of the community. 

The New Haven County Farm Bureau, organized about five years ago, opened 
to women of earnest endeavor an opportunity which they were quick to seize, 
and New Haven women have already had an enviable share in a work which is 
becoming state and nation-wide. The league aimed to improve the condition 
of the farmer, but women must look after the farmer's wife. From New Haven, 
the headquarters for this county, women have gone out to all the towns around 
with advances of the efficient plans of the Farm Bureau, and of the Federal 
Department of Agriculture for showing the farmer's wife how better to help 
herself. Important results of this work have already been shown in the reports 
of the Farm Bureau. 

II 

Women have associated from the start in the work of the New Haven Civic 
Federation, but no more positive or important fruit of their work has appeared 
than in the achievements of the section for the protection of minors. 

In March of 1915 the federation published a study of the problem of girl 
delinquency in New Haven, by Miss Mabel A. Wiley. It was not sensational. 



264 A MODERN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN 

It showed, probably, conditions no worse than might be found in most cities 
of the saine size, and some smaller than New Haven. But taken in connection 
with reports that had been made of delinquency among boys, it convinced think- 
ing men and women that it was high time to do something more and different 
for offsetting the waywardness of some of the unprotected young. 

Especially did the city need, they believed, a children's court. But why 
stop at that? There w^as no proper provision for children, that is, minors, from 
the time of their arrest until the time of their trial. The Organized Charities 
Building, though ill fitted, had served this pui-pase in a way, but the number of 
delinquents had increased to the point where it could no longer do this. It 
was not a jail and could not, if it was minded to do so, ensure the retention and 
delivery to the court the next day of those left in its care. Moreover, there 
was no means except the service of an overworked probation officer to see to the 
proper direction of delinquents kept on probation by the court. And there 
was no woman probation officer. 

Women had brought these matters to public attention ; women met the emer- 
gency. They would not have been able to do this so soon or so effectively but 
for the material a.ssistance of two of their niimber. The ^ft to the City of New 
Haven, fully refitted and prepared for its work, of the Children's Building at 
281 Orange Street, ha-s already been mentioned. With it goes a story. 

Early in 1916 it was announced that some philanthropic citizen or citizens, 
whose name was withheld, had purchased the building on Orange Street and 
would refit it for a place of detention and trial for juvenile delinquents. There 
was some wonderment, but the work began at once. Not until the spring of 
1917, when the building was completed and opened, were the names of the donors 
made known. The gi-atitude was greater than the surprise when they were 
revealed as Mrs. Percy T. Walden and her sister, Mrs. Frank D. Berrien, and the 
building a memorial to their father and mother, Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Whittlesey. 
But there was a surprise of another sort when the full nature and purpose of the 
building were made known. 

For this was not a jail ; it was a home. It was not a place of stern tribunal ; 
it was a place where the judge and the delinquent might talk it over in quiet 
and without the publicity and other undesirable features of the police court, 
and come to a settlement giving the youth all the chance the law allowed. The 
whole arrangement was such as to attempt a cure for delinquency, not that 
aggravation of it which the police and courts had so long, from no particular 
fault of their own, been producing. It is as fine a tribute as could be given 
to the spirit and discernment of womanhood in New Haven — for this was dis- 
tinctly a woman's work — to describe the building somewhat in detail: 

The building is one of the fine old residences of Orange Street, still bearing, 
outwardly, all the attraction of the earlier days. It has none of the earmarks 
of a police building or place of detention. Inside, it has a court room which 
looks as though it might be the library of a gentleman prepared to receive 
visitors, that gentleman being the judge. It ha-s two adjoining rooms where 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 265 

probation officers meet the boys and girls who report to them. It has detention 
quarters for boys, which include single bedrooms, not cells, with equipment for 
shower baths, central recreation room and supervisor's room. There are de- 
tention quarters for girls, which also consist of comfortable rooms with single 
beds. There is a pleasant dining room and house kitchen. 

This is only a part. The court has to observe the law as to penalties, and of 
course in the most flagrant cases the law must take its course, but there arc 
very few of these. This building is not intended for the incorrigible, but for 
the ma.jority who are corrigible. When the boy or girl enters that building — 
it is through the basement — a bathing and sterilizing department does its best 
to make him or her and the clothing clean outwardl.y. After the court has done 
its part, the child is sent home if there is a place that can properly be called 
its home. Often there is not, and that is the reason why the child is in detention. 
In such a case, there are the disciplinary schools, one for the boys and another 
for the girls. These are under the direction of the Board of Education, and are 
used for the compulsory instruction of chronic truants as well as for those who 
have been arrested. They are in many ways attractive schools. For the boys 
they have their shops as well as schoolroom, with shower baths, playground 
and garden. The girls have the same advantages, except that they may learn 
domestic science instead of woodworking. 

In some ways the work of this building is preventive as well as corrective. 
Its whole attitude is that of winning, not punishing, the unfortunate child. It 
is recognized that although what is for convenience called delinquency is 
more often the sin of parents than of their offspring, and the whole plan of the 
organization is to prevent, if may be, its repetition in another generation. Those 
who have observed the workings of this institution in its comparatively brief 
time of operation are convinced that its theory is sound, and that its plan will 
be a success. 

Ill 

Some five .years ago a company of thoughtful New Haven women started after 
the same end — that of preventing delinquency — by another course. The vice 
of the dance hall, and the vice it bred, had been sadly shown. It was, as it then 
existed, doing more than any other single thing to ruin the young girls — and 
for that matter, the young men — of the city. The police wouldn't or didn't 
stop it. It seemed that the sensible thing was an antidote. Why not try 
offering the young people a place for dancing which should have more attractive- 
ness than the dance hall of commerce, but none of its vicious elements, with a 
supervision that would be real, but unobjectionable? 

The first problem was to find the place. It did not take the ladies long to 
discover, if they did not know to begin with, that certain of the modern school- 
houses, having large assembly halls with good floors, were nearly ideal for the 
purpose. But the Board of Education was not easily persuaded that such a use 



266 



A MODERN HISTORY OP NEW HAVEN 



of the school halls was justifiable. By which they meant, perhaps, not that 
they eared themselves, but that they felt unequal to the task of convincing the 
taxpayers, some of whom would never get the ladies' point of view, and cared 
mighty little, seemingly, about the girls who were going wrong in the dance 
halls, that their costly school buildings should be used for dancing. Meanwhile, 
the Board of Education tried to cover their excuse up with objections about 
the difficulty of janitors, lighting, music and the like. 

The ladies, seeing that they should need all the strength of organization as 
well as the arts of persuasion, had meanwhile formed themselves into the Social 
Service Dance Committee. The number was small at first, then increased, and 
now has settled down to fifteen. Mrs. Stewart Means, the moving spirit of the 
whole affair from the first, was and is the chairman, and for most of the time Mrs. 
Charles W. Vishno has been the -able second in command, though most of the 
ladies who have formed the changing committee from time to time have been 
on it because they saw the point, and were willing and able to help. 

It is not especially a matter of interest to trace the process of convincing 
the guardians of the school buildings and securing the halls. It is sufficient to 
know that they got them — five of them, eventually. They took them mostly in 
the congested districts. Green Street. Truman Street and Strong schools 
were the ones mostly used. Barnard School, in one of the less congested parts 
of the city, was opened later simply because the dances became so popular that 
those who might be expected to prefer less democratic places of gathering simply 
demanded them. The fifth was Ivy Street School. 

These were not free dances, however. The thing was run on a business basis. 
The enterpri.se cost money. It was intended for those, in the main, who had 
been paying money to attend dances at less desirable places. An admission fee of 
twenty-five cents for the young men and fifteen cents for the young women 
was charged. And as the attendance at certain times of the year rose to 1,500 
a night, it is easy to see that the income was considerable. But so was the 
expense. The Board of Education was paid $6.50 a night for each school hall, 
which was supposed to cover the extra pay for a janitor and the lighting. The 
orchestras were paid, not volunteer. There were paid dancing instructors and 
helpers, the work of the committee being only supervisory. The committee 
acted, so far as possible, as chaperons, giving a social status to the affairs. 

These dances have been tremendously popular. Care has been exercised 'not 
to have unpleasant overcrowding, but there have been no vacant places. Those 
who came came again. They had a genuinely good time. They met young 
people of their own age and of their own neighborhood. They had the best of 
music and dancing of the highest class — not neglecting the popular. The ladies 
who chaperoned had the time of their lives. They saw life as some of them had 
never seen it before. They saw good being done by wholesale. And incidentally, 
but important, the committee always had a good balance after all bills were paid. 

And what was the effect on the common dance halls? The cheapest and the 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 267 

worst of them died without a struggle. The course which some of those deter- 
mined to survive took is perhaps the most interesting development, at any rate, 
the most convincing proof of the success of the effort. In Fair Haven, where 
Strong Sdiool was on Friday evenings taking away all his people, the proprietor 
of the principal dance hall saw a great light. He had a good hall, perhaps as 
good as Strong School's. Yet the young people would go to the school when it 
was open. What was the attraction? It must be the management of the ladies. 
So this proprietor, wise in his generation, came to the committee with a proposi- 
tion. They should take charge of his place two or three nights a week, and 
he would be content with such a percentage of the profits as they saw fit to 
give him. The ladies were not greedy : they were too pleased with their moral 
victory to want any pay. But they made an equitable business arrangement, 
and for some time took partial charge of this public dance hall, whose owner 
made good capital out of their prestige. 

When hot weather made the closing of the school dances imperative, the 
ladies looked about for some means of keeping the work going through the 
summer. They found the proprietor of the only dance hall at Savin Rock willing 
to give them entire charge one evening in the week. He offered them forty 
per cent over all expenses. They were content with twenty-five. 

The committee now looks forward to the time when it may have its own 
central hall in the city, where it may run dances several nights in the week, 
as the school dances are conducted only on Friday nights. But in any case, it 
feels that it has justified its faith, and those who know anything about the 
results of the work think so too. The members of the committee for 1917-18 are : 

Mrs. Stewart Means, chairman : Mrs. Charles W. Vishno, Mrs. F. W. Williams, 
Mrs. W. A. Rice, Mrs. Robert C. Denison, Mrs. Henry C. White, Mrs. Edward 
W. Hopkins, Mrs. P. J. Diamond, Mrs. F. T. Bradley, Mrs. Burton Mansfield, 
Mrs. F. C. Porter, Mrs. Arthur T. Hadley, Mrs. Alfred W. Wakeman, Mrs. C. J. 
Bartlett, Mrs. Joseph Whitney. 

There is one woman who, in addition to participation in several of the 
activities already mentioned in this chapter, has been a leader in many others. 
Mrs. Berry L. Mott was for several years president of the Connecticut Congress 
of Mothers, and through it and other organizations as well as individual work 
has been very active for child welfare. For a year she was regent of Mary 
Clap Wooster Chapter, D. A. R. In the present war emergency she is active 
in a number of connections, chiefly, for the past year, the charge of a war farm 
which women maintained near Race Brook, and which was a great success. She 
has also for many years been a leader among the women in the work of Calvary 
Baptist Church. She is typical of many of the w-omen of New Haven. 

The work of the New Haven Chapter of the Red Cro.ss has for years been 
carried on largely by women, and never more than in the present time. Rev. 
Robert C. Denison is chairman, but Mrs. Edward G. Buckland, as vice chair- 
man, is very active in carrying on the work. Some of her best assistants are 



268 



A MODERN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN 



Miss Edith Woolsey, Mrs. Raynham Townshend, Mrs. J. Morris Simmons and 
Mrs. Isaac M. Ullman. 

Such are only a few of the features of woman's public work in New Haven. 
Her lines of endeavor increase with every year, as the scope of her activities 
and opportunities widens. As it stands, it is a record in which to rejoice. 



CHAPTER XXVII 
FRATERNITIES AND CLUBS 

THE ANCIENT ORDER OF MASONRY IN NEW HAVEN ODD FELLOWSHIP — THE KNIGHTS 

OP COLUMBUS, ITS HISTORY AND PRESENT WORK FRATERNITIES IN GENERAL 

SOCIAL CLUBS — THE TRADES UNION 

The universal tendency of man to fraternize has its demonstration in New 
Haven to an extent not often surpassed. There may be 175,000 men, women and 
children in the city today, but it seems as if there were fraternities, societies and 
clubs enough to hold them all. As a matter of fact, a great many of them are 
members many times over, and he who doesn't belong to something is poor 
indeed. Every organization in the long list has its purpose, some serious, some 
seemingly trifling. There is a wide range, from the Chamber of Commerce for the 
promotion of everything to the society for the promotion of cremation. Almost 
every fraternity which the "broad empire of America can furnish is found here. 
And there ai-e not a few that have been imported from other empires. 

Thirty years ago, the historian was able to detail the list by name. Now 
that is a task too gi-eat for anybodj^ short of the directory-maker. For there 
were, by the latest official count, 473 organizations of all classes in New Haven. 
These classified somewhat in this way: Fraternal, 204; religious and benevo- 
lent, 46 ; social clubs, 47 ; war veterans associations, 12 ; miscellaneous, 164. 

Inevitably, these reach a multitude of individuals — in fact, as has been said, 
practically all the individuals in New Haven. But it is obvious that they cannot 
be treated in detail. Some effort will be made to pay special attention to the 
oldest and most historic, along with those which have had the greatest influence 
on the life and development of New Haven. Several of these, in fact, have been 
treated or will be treated elsewhere. 



It is not alone as representative of the oldest fraternal orders that Masonry 
should be given first place in New Haven's fraternity record. For the lodge 
which stands first in the list of its Masonic bodies is "Old Hiram, No. 1." 
And that means, in brief, that Hiram Lodge, No. 1, A. F. & A. M., was the 
first chartered lodge in Connecticut. It was instituted by virtue of a warrant 
granted on the 12th of August, 1750, by "St. John's Grand Lodge of Boston, 

269 



270 A MODERN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN 

as descending from the Grand Lodge of England." General David Wooster, 
whose name is not otherwise unknown in New Haven annals, was the applicant. 

General Wooster (he was Captain Wooster then) was the first ma.ster. The 
old charter, dated November 12, 1750, is still preserved in the archives. The 
first meeting was held the following month, and the lodge has had a continuous 
existence ever since. It has been the ancestor of many societies of its order. 
The old records are fragmentarj-, but sufficient to show steady interest, growth 
and prosperity. There were many movings in the early years, though an effort 
was made to provide an abiding home. The first meeting is believed to have 
been at Jehiel Tuttle's inn, which is said to have been on the west side of 
College Street, .just north of Elm. Two years later, the lodge moved to Joseph 
Goldthwaite's, and appears to have met there mostly for the following decade. 
Then there is mention of the "Bunch of Grapes" Tavern and the Fountain 
Tavern, kept by Christopher Kilby, one of the brothers. In 1769 and the years 
following there is various mention of Brother Robert Brown's, the Masons' 
Arms and Brother Lathrop's. This moving habit was continued until 1801, 
when there was an establishment in the house of Amos Doolittle which lasted 
until 1813. 

At the beginning of 1818 the lodge took up quarters in Harmony Hall in the 
Union School Building, which stood on the east side of Little Orange Street near 
the corner of Crown. It was a two-story structure, and at this time the first 
floor was fitted for a school building and the second for a hall, which hall now 
became the home of the lodge. Most of the stock was owned by the members 
of the lodge, so that this might be called the first home ow-ned by the society. 

This headquarters served until 1841, when the growth of the order in New 
Haven, and the prosperity of Hiram Lodge, made a more adequate building seem 
indispensable. This time it was proposed that the lodge erect its own liuilding, 
wholly suited for its purposes. There was, however, an alliance • with the 
Union School corporation w-hieh had to be continued or adjusted. The com- 
mittee charged with the matter arranged with the corporation to sell its building 
on Little Orange Street, and erect a new building with the top floor fitted for 
lodge purposes. The effort succeeded, after some controversy, to have this new 
building called the JIasonic Temple. It was occupied by Hiram lodge in 1844, 
and served not only for this lodge, but for many years for all the Masonic lodges 
of New Haven. 

But within less than thirty years these quarters had become inadequate. The 
Grand Lodge found them so unsatisfactory that it declined to hold its grand ses- 
sion there in 1870, and found accommodations in the old State House. The Ma- 
sonic bodies appointed a joint committee to secure a new temple. At that time 
Cornelius S. Bushnell. one of New Haven's leading citizens, a member of Wooster 
Lodge, was planning the erection of a lodge building at the southeast corner of 
Chapel and Union streets, and the . committee arranged with him to make the 
building a Masonic Temple, with the top floor laid out according to the wishes 
of the craft. This temple was completed in 1872, and was said at the time to con- 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 271 

tain, in the "Blue Room" provided for Old Hiram, one of the finest lodge rooms 
in the countr.y. It had been decorated, we are told, at an expense of $8,000. 
Each of the other lodges leased its share of the Temple. 

But that temple, after serving for over thiry years as the best home the New 
Haven Masons had ever had, was found in the path of that merciless division of 
Now Haven which the railroad made when it constructed its "cut" in 1905, and 
the Iniilding was purchased for destruction. Somewhat suddenly, Old Hiram 
was compelled to look for other quarters. ]\Iany of the other lodges had estab- 
lished themselves in Masonic Hall on Church Street, which had become and still 
is the headquarters of most of the JFasonic bodies of the city. But Hiram found 
that the space available to it there was not adequate to its considerable needs. 
Seeking other quarters, it tarried for a time in a building belonging to the Elks 
on Crown Street, but soon went to what had formerly been the IVlasonic Temple on 
Court Street, then the Steinert Building. There, in what- was called J'raternity 
Hall, quarters comfortable but not altogether satisfactory, it met for the nest 
ten years. 

The move it made in 1915 is .justl.y regarded by Old Hiram as the most sat- 
isfactory in its history. For this was into a building erected almost exclusively 
for its own purposes, at a convenient central point in the city, handsome without 
and sumptuous within. Hiram lodge is very proud of its building at 234 Crown 
Street — not far. in a direct line, from where the fathers first landed only a little 
?nore than a century before its institution — and so are all New Haven people 
who pass it. 

One hundi'cd and sixty-eight years of Masonry in New Haven is but out- 
wardly sketched by these movements of its oldest lodge. The oldest records, 
in their incompleteness, f-ail to show just how many charter members the lodge 
had, ])ut the tattered old initial page of the record book holds the names of 
twelve men who were present at that first meeting at Jehiel Tuttle's. It was 
on May 4, 1916, at the old lodge's newest home on Crown Street, that Winton 
C. Peck, raised to the sublime degree of Master ]Mason, made the one-thousandth 
member. But in those years, also, the one lodge has grown to six lodges of the 
A. F. & A. M. with several thousand members. In the immediate New Haven 
district there are also lodges at West Haven, Hamden, Branford and North 
Haven. There are two chapters of Royal Arch Masons in New Haven and one 
in West Haven. There are two councils of Royal and Select Masters in New 
Haven. It has its commandery of the Knights Templar, and three bodies of 
the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite. So has the one body of 1750 grown 
to fourteen Masonic bodies in New Haven alone. The eleven others in the county 
eastward of New Haven are most of them direct descendants of the New Haven 
body, mostly of Old Hiram. Nearly all of them are veterans, now, as to age 
and standing. 

Hiram Lodge, No. 1, instituted in 1750, has been duly described. Its master 
for the present year is Samuel A. ]\Ioyle. Following historical rank, Woaster 
Lodge, No. 79, was instituted in 1851. Its master for 1918 is Carl W. Johnson. 



272 A MODERN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN 

The next lodge to be instituted in New Haven proper was Trumbull, No. 22, in 
1869 of which George C. Stock is now master. Connecticut Rock Lodge, No. 
92 4as instituted in 1864, and Carl A. Kandetski is master for the present 
veLr Adelphi Lodge, No. 63, was not a New Haven body when instituted in 
1823 being across the Quinnipiac in what was then East Haven. It thus comes 
next' in age to Old Hiram. It meets in Masonic Hall on East Grand Avenue, 
and its master for 1918 is Ellsworth E. Cowles. Olive Branch Lodge, No. 84, 
in the Westville district, has since 1857 had a flourishing history. It has its 
own Masonic Hall at 905 AA'halley Avenue. Hugh Gibb is its master for 1918. 
West Haven also has its Masonic Temple, and its flourishing lodge, insti- 
tuted in 1873, is Annawon, No. 115. Joseph E. Southerton is its present master. 
Branford has' one of the old lodges of the state, Widow's Son, No. 66, instituted 
in 1825. It meets in its own commodious Masonic Hall. James Milne, Jr., is 
its master. Day Spring Lodge, No. 30, of Hamden, is very old among the 
lodges, having been instituted in 1794. Its meeting place is in the Town Hall at ' 
Centerville, and its worthy master for 1918 is Leroy C. Wright of Wliitneyville. 
North Haven's lodge is Corinthian, instituted in 1867. H. Wilson Clinton is 
its master for 1918. 

Franklin Chapter, No. 2, Royal Arch Masons, was instituted in New Haven 
in 1818. Its present master is Daniel H. Gladding. Fair Haven East also has 
its Crawford Council, No. 19, of the same order, instituted in 1852, and Edwin 
C. Hitchcock as master. 

New Haven has No. 2 Commandery of the Knights Templar, instituted in 
1825. Its eminent commander for 1918 is John B. Freysinger of Stamford. 

The bodies of the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite in New Haven are the 
E. G. Storer Lodge of Perfection, instituted in 1874; the Elm City Council, 
P. of J., 1876 ; and the New Haven Chapter Rose Croix, also instituted in 1876. 

Of the Order of the Eastern Star, the women's auxiliary of the Masonic 
order, there are six chapters : Excelsior, No. 3 ; Myrtle, No. 6 ; Mystic, No. 20 ; 
Ethel, No. 28; Golden Rod, No. 34; Palestine, No. 67. 

Of the Order of the Amaranth, Unity Court, No. 3. 

Colored Masonry has also a long standing in New Haven, with its own 
. Masonic building at 76 Webster Street. It also has No. 1 lodge, being Widow's 
Son, P. & A. M. There is also Oriental Lodge, No. 6. 

The other colored bodies are Eureka Chapter, No. 9, Order of the Eastern 
Star; St. Paul's Commandery, No. 9, of Knights Templar; Arabic Temple, No. 
40, A. A. 0. N. M. S. 

II 

Though the origin of Odd Fellowship in England dates well back toward 
the beginning of the eighteenth century, the century following that was well 
advanced before it had made positive beginnings in this country. September 
3, 1839. the date of the institution of the first lodge in New Haven, was only 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 273 

twenty years later than the institution of the first lodge in the United States, 
and it was the beginning of Odd Fellowship in Connecticut. 

That was substantially eighty years ago. In that time Quinnipiac Lodge 
lias grown to ten lodges in New Haven, with a membership of 2,930 and a.ssets 
of $105,994. But the spirit of equal franchise entered into Odd Fellowship 
earlier than it did into some other orders. Only thirty years later than the insti- 
tution of the first lodge of independent male Odd Fellows the first Rebekah lodge 
was started here. This was Naomi Rebekah Lodge, dated August 20, 1869. 
Today there are four Rebekah lodges in the city, with a membership of 601, and 
assets of $9,987. 

Only four years later than the institution of the first lodge in New Haven 
there was found a sufficient number of those who had passed the three primary 
degrees of Odd Fellowship to form an encampment. The first to be instituted 
was Sassacus, on August 17, 1841. At present there are three encampments, 
with 514 members, who hold assets of $16,197. Of the Patriarchs Militant, 
or military branch of the order, there are two cantons in New Haven, Sassacus 
and Aurora. 

New Haven is the mother of Odd Fellowship in Connecticut, having No. 1 
of lodges, Rebekah lodges, encampments and cantons. Properly, then, the 
Grand Lodge has its headquarters in the city. In the Odd Fellows Building 
on Crown Street, William S. Hutchi.son, for many years the grand secretary 
and administrative officer of the Grand Lodge, has his headquarters, and there 
the Grand Lodge has its gatherings. 

The history of Odd Fellowship in Connecticut is largely a record of the 
promotion work done from New Haven. An organization whose principles are 
the bonds of friendship, love and truth, whose pillars are faith, hope and love 
and whose foundation is belief in a Supreme Being, naturally inspires the mis- 
sionary spirit. No narrow lines are drawn against those who would, enter it. 
hut there are plain requirements as to moral character, and certain objection- 
able occupations, chiefly saloonkeeping, bartending and gambling, are barred. 
On such a basis, largely from headquarters in New Haven, has been built up in 
Connecticut an edifice of 25,857 members, who meet in 91 lodges. The total 
assets of the Grand Lodge at the end of last year were somewhat over one 
million dollars, of which $835,821 consists of invested funds. In the Grand 
Encampment there are 5,643 members, and its assets at the end of the year were 
$82,333. There are 61 Rebekah lodges in the state, with a total of 9,600 members, 
6,345 of them female and 3,255 male. This is Connecticut's part of the 2,203,301 
persons belonging to the order in the world. 

The names of the ten lodges of the I. 0. 0. F. in New Haven, in the order of 
their institution, are: Quinnipiac, No. 1; Harmony, No. 5; Montowese, No. 15; 
City, No. 36; Croswell, No. 39; Svea, No. 40; Polar Star, No. 77; Germania. No. 
78 ; Relief, No. 86 ; Humboldt, No. 91. 

The encampments are Sassacus, No. 1 ; Golden Rule. No. 24 ; Aurora, No. 27. 



274 A MODERN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN 

The two cantons of the Patriarchs Militant are Sassacus, No. 1, and Aurora, 

No. 12. 

The four lodges of the Daughters of Rebekah are Naomi, No. 1 ; New Haven, 

No. 3 ; Deborah, No. 14 ; Columbia, No. 15. 

There are three bodies in New Haven of the G. U. 0. of 0. F., or order of 
colored Odd Fellows. These are Christian Star Lodge, No. 1484 ; Unity Lodge, 
No. 6398; Household of Ruth, No. 52. 

These have their own headciuarters on Goffe Street. 

Ill 

Among the almost myriad societies, fraternities and various social organiza- 
tions in New Haven, one stands out with such prominence as to give it eminent 
historical distinction. For the Knights of Columbus is the only fraternity, now 
of national or even larger magnitude, which had its initial organization in New 
Haven. It is, moreover, the development of the past thirty-six years. In New 
Haven still is San Salvador Council, No. 1, and in New Haven, as from the begin- 
ning, is its supreme office. It has been an aid of the Catholic Church through 
the holding together of its men. Its principles have been the noble ones of the 
church, exalting in a direct way and keeping in the minds of its men the ideals 
for which it stands. It has a wonderful record, and New Haven is proud of it. 

All this and more the story of the origin of the movement, of its progress and 
achievement, will best tell. It may best be told from within, and it merits such 
prominence. William J. McGinley, supreme secretary of the order, has furnished 
these facts in the history of the Knights of Columbus i 

The preliminary organization was accomplished in the City of New Haven 
February 2, 1882. by Rev. il. J. McGivney, Rev. P. P. Lawlor, James T. Mullen, 
C. T. Driscoll, Dr. il. C. O'Connor, Daniel Colwell, William M. Geary, John T. 
Kerrigan, Thomas M. Carroll, Bartholomew Healey, Michael Curran and James 
McMahon. At a preliminary meeting. Rev. ^I. J. ilcGivney was selected as a com- 
mittee to visit Boston and request the Massachusetts Catholic Order of Foresters 
to grant these gentlemen a charter for a local branch of their society. The peti- 
tion was refused, and Father McGivney, on his return, presented to his associates 
plans which he himself had constructed for the establishment of a society of 
Catholic men. 

On March 29, 1882, the Connecticut Legislature granted a charter to Rev. M. 
J. McGivney, Rev. P. P. Lawlor, James T. ^Mullen, C. T. Driscoll, Dr. JI. C. 
O'Connor, Daniel Colwell, William M. Geary, John T. Kerrigan and Michael Cur- 
ran. These men are .justly entitled to the honor of having designed and planned 
the ceremonials and degi-ees of the order. However, the distinction of having 
selected the name "Knights of Columbus" for the society must go to Rev. M. J. 
McGivney, who from the start was unquestionably the leading spirit in laying 
the foundation upon which this .splendid Catholic fraternity has been erected. 
The specific purpose of the organization was to establish a Catholic fraternal 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 275 

society tliat would lie an uplifting intluence in the lives of Catholic men sociallj' ; 
the bringing together of successful Catholic men to the end that they might, 
through their united efforts, advance the cause of Catholic charity and Catholic 
education, and still further that they might, through their insurance department, 
furnish at least temporary financial aid to the families of deceased members. 

On February 2, 1882, the organizers met and established themselves as the 
Supreme Committee, composed of the following supreme officers : 

James T. ]\Inllen, Supreme Knight. 

John T. Kerrigan, Deputy Supreme Knight. 

Rev. M. J. McGivney, Supreme Council Corresponding Secretary. 

James T. McMahon, Supreme Council Financial Secretary. 

Jlieliael Curran, Supreme Council Treasurer. 

Cornelius T. Driscoll, Supreme Council Advocate. 

Rev. P. P. Lawlor, Supreme Council Chaplain. 

Dr. il. C. O'Connor, Supreme Council Physician. 

Daniel Colwell, Supreme Council Lecturer. 

On ]\Iay 15, 1882, the Supreme Committee granted the first subordinate coun- 
cil charter. This council was located in the City of New Haven, and was named 
San Salvador Council No. 1. 

The necessity of some plan for the ofifiecring and control of subordinate coun- 
cils now engaged the attention of the Supreme Committee, which finally decided 
on the following: Grand knight, deputy grand knight, chancellor, warden, 
trea.surer, corresponding secretary, financial secretary, chaplain, advocate, physi- 
cian, lecturer, three trustees. At this time the Supreme Committee exemplified 
the ceremonials of the society for the new subordinate council. They consisted 
of First, Second and Third degrees, together with an elaborate presentation of 
charter to subordinate councils. 

The plan of developing the organization from this time wa.s one of organizing 
subordinate councils in the different cities and towns throughout the state of 
Coimectieut, and it was not until April 15, 1885, when a subordinate council was 
established at Westerly, R. I., as Narragansett, No. 21, that the influence of the 
order was extended beyond the parent state. The original organizers had no 
larger vision of the society's future than that its usefulness would be confined to 
Connecticut. Their imagination did not picture the great part that it would 
in the future play in the social life of the Catholic men of America. 

At this time the Supreme Committee enacted a law providing that a Supreme 
Council should be established composed of the Supreme Committee and dele- 
gates from subordinate councils, each council to be entitled to one delegate to 
each fifty members. This method, after a time, proved embarrassing, because of 
the number of delegates it provided for the Supreme Council, and resulted on 
May 14, 1886, in action of the Supreme Council resolving itself into the "Board 
of Government," this board to be composed of what had been the Supreme Com- 
mittee, and grand knight and past grand knight of each subordinate council. 

Meanwhile, the order had been extended to still other states. On April 23, 



276 A MODERN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN 

1891, Council No. 60 was established at Brooklyn, N. Y. On April 10, 1892, 
Bunker Plill Council, No. 62, was established at Charlestovvn, Mass., and a little 
over a month later Home City Council, No. 63, was formed at Springfield, Mass. 
At the same time it Ix'canie apparent that further changes in the method of gov- 
ennnciit would iic necessary. Provision was therefore made for the establishment 
of .state councils, to be composed of two delegates from each subordinate council 
in the state. By virtue of their offices, the grand knight and past grand knight 
of each council bi»came such delegates, the state council being convened and pre- 
sided over by the supreme knight. The first of these state councils was organized 
at Providence on April 22, 1893. On April 24 the second was organized at Bos- 
ton, Mass., and only two days later a state council for Connecticut was formed 
at New Haven. 

On April 29 of the .same year the Board of Government was succeeded by a 
new lx)dy called the National Council, composed of the state deputy and past 
state deputy of each state council, together with one delegate for each thousand 
members of the insurance ela.ss. It was further provided that where the number 
of councils and membership in any state was not sufficient to organize a state 
council, the supreme knight should appoint a chief executive officer, to be known 
as "territorial deputy," who by virtue of his office should be a delegate to the 
National Council. 

Associate members, consisting of men advanced in years, or for other rea- 
sons unable to pass a satisfactory insurance examination, were first admitted 
to the order in 1893. They derive all benefits with the exception of the insur- 
ance feature. The World's Columbian Exposition at Chicago in 1893 gave the 
society a great impetus in some previously undeveloped states, including New 
York, and in 1895. after the institution at New York City of Council No. 124, 
the organization of the Atlantic Coast and Middle States was accomplished. 
The first grand exsmplificatiou of the fourth degree took place at Lenox Lyceum, 
New York City, on February 22, 1900, when over 1,200 candidates from all 
])arts of the United States, including many prominent ecclesiastics, received 
the honors of the degree. 

At present the organization is represented in every state and territory of 
the Union, every province of the Dominion of Canada, in Newfoundland, the 
Philippines, Mexico, Cuba, Panama, Porto Rico and Alaska. The membership 
is of two chisses, insurance and associate, and on February 1, 1918, was made 
up of 123,577 insurance and 268,483 associate members, a total of 392,060. 

In the thirty-six years of its existence, the society has accomplished great 
results in providing education and comfortable homes for Catholic orphans, pre- 
serving them in the faith, and insuring their training as patriotic and useful 
citizens ; endowing scholarships in Catholic colleges, providing lectures on Cath- 
olic truth ; participating in various charitable works, such as endowing hospital 
beds, sending sick members to sanatoria and otherwise meeting the needs of 
those within its reach. It has established at the Catholic University of America, 
at an expen.se of $50,000, a chair of American history, with a further expendi- 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 277 

ture of several thousand dollars in connection therewith for library purposes. 
The order has presented an endowment fund of $500,000 for fifty scholarships 
at the Catholic University of America, thereby going far toward placing that 
institution on a sound financial basis. 

Tlie order has already paid to heirs of deceased members $10,475,000. It 
has been largely instrumental in leading the United States Government to estab- 
li.sh in the City of Washington a memorial to Christopher Columbus. Finally, 
in several cities of the country the order has been active in the work of 
establishing libraries of Catholic literature, and throughout its whole sphere 
of activities it is accomplishing a wonderful work in the erection of council 
liomes, which are the scene of Catholic social activity, and must inevitably 
result in the permanent elevation and advancement of the people. 

So much for history. The rest of the story of the Knights of Columbus is 
a statement of present time. The organization has proved its virility and 
humanity by its participation in the struggle of the world. When certain of 
the troops of the United States went to the Mexican border in 1916, the Knights 
saw the need of rendering to the men such a service at the front as the order 
had for years been giving them at home. Almost involuntarily, under the 
urge of that need, it established buildings and recreation centers at some fifteen 
points along the border, intended for all who would use them, but with especial 
reference to the needs of Catholics. This work was supported out of the 
organization's omti fund, without any public appeal. 

This gave the heads of the order such a vision of the possibilities of the 
future that when the war broke in 1917 they were ready. Immediately they 
tendered the services and resources of the order to the President. The ofl'er 
wa.s accepted, and the organization took steps to raise a fund of a million 
dollars for the work. The call for this was sent out to members. But the 
inadequacy of such a sum was early apparent, and it was speedily followed 
by a call for three millions, and to this the response came from everywhere. 
This is but a beginning, and at present the organization, planning without 
restriction to extend its work in the fullest manner wherever our soldiers go, 
antici])ates the need of calling for several millions more. The work, if it ever 
was within sectarian limits, long since outgrew them, and the Knights at home 
and abroad are working side by side with every agency for the moral support 
of the men w^ho fight. 

The official statement says that the buildings of the Knights of Columbus 
are open all the time for all soldiers, to be used for recreational, social and 
religious purposes. There is no propaganda for the benefit of the order. The 
supreme purpose is to do good. The religious use of the buildings, of course, is 
by the church which stands back of this order. But there is no competition 
with the Young Men's Christian Association except to outstrip it in doing good. 
None of the money is wasted, most of the added detail work which this enter- 
prise makes necessary being done by regular employes of the order, either at 
Washington or New Haven. 



278 A MODERN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN 

The program, being steadily carried out, iu large measure, includes the 
erection, equipment and maintenance of at least three buildings in each of the 
army cantonments, two buildings in each of the national guard encampments, 
and one each in the various other military and naval stations. Volunteer chap- 
lains are to be furnished wherever there is need. It is planned to spend almost 
three millions of dollars for work in the United States, and about five millions 
more for the work overseas. 

At the end of 1917, the society had seventy buildings completed and iu 
operation in this country, with five others under way or authorized. These 
were situated at the cantonments and encampments all the way from Ayer, 
Mass., to American Lake, Wash., and from Palo Alto, Cal, to Jacksonville, Fla. 
And seven chaplains in the service of the order had been stationed at points 
where buildings were not then erected. There were forty-nine chaplains and 
137 secretaries already at work in the buildings. Abroad there were one com- 
missioner and one secretary, and seven chaplains in the service of the order. 
This overseas work had dated mostly from December first of 1917, for not until 
that time had permission been granted for voluntary chaplains to go within 
the lines. 

Such is a sketch of the magnitude of a great work, begun and carried on 
from New Haven. It may rightly be considered much more than a development 
of a social organization. It is rather the record of an organization with a great 
purpose, that has risen nobly to a great occasion. 

IV 

There is a host of other organizations, some of them represented by many 
constituent bodies. Of these, probably the most prominent is the Knights of 
Pythias, an old organization long established here and having now twelve lodges. 

The New England Order of Protection, a younger organization, having the 
insurance as well as the social purpose, has long been flourishing in New Haven. 
It has now twelve lodges. 

The Ancient Order of United Workmen has been represented in New Haven 
since 1868. It has now ten lodges, flourishing and serving their purpose well. 
The Order of United American Mechanics has six councils. The Foresters of 
America have seven camps, the Ancient Order of Foresters two, and the Inde- 
pendent Order of Foresters one. There are four camps of the Woodmen of the 
World. 

The Fraternal Benefit League has eight councils. The Royal Arcanum has 
five. The Improved Order of Heptasophs has four bodies. The Degree of Honor 
has two lodges. The Patriotic Order of the Sons of America has two camps, 
and there are three castles of the Knights of the Golden Eagle. 

The U. 0. G. P. has seven lodges, and the Improved Order of Red Men 
has four. The Knights jf The Maccabees have one organization, and the Ladies 
of The Maccabees have four. There are two lodges of the Modern Woodmen of 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 279 

America. There are six representatives of the Order of Shepherds of Bethlehem, 
and two of the Star of Bethlehem. There are two lodges of the Patriotic Order 
of America, and two of the Sons of St. George. 

The Sons of the American Revolution are represented by a strong chapter, 
which does a patriotic work of great value for New Haven. The Daughters 
of the American Revolution, mentioned elsewhere, are doing their full part. 
Irish patriotism is promoted by three divisions of the Ancient Order of Hiber- 
nians. There are three bodies of the Independent Order of B'rith Abraham. 
To this host might be added a considerable number of societies having a single 
representative, which are included in the 164 "miscellaneous." 

The Benevolent and Patriotic Order of Elks is represented in New Haven 
by a single body, but that is a strong and effective one, with its own building 
on Crown Street. Its membership is large and live. It is identified with many 
community works, notably an annual Christmas benefit for the needy, which 
is entirely worthy of the first letter of its name. 

The Eagles, one of the youngest of orders in the city, has a single aerie, 
which is progressive and prosperous. 

There are fourteen temperance societies, including four Woman's Christian 
Temperance unions and two lodges of the Golden Cross, four Loyal Temperance 
leagues and a lodge of Sons of Temperance. The familiar "T. A. B.," well known 
for its worthy work among Catholic men, young and old, is represented by 
three societies. 

Twelve organizations represent the veterans of the wars that have been. 
The Grand Army of the Republic has seven posts, with long and honorable 
history. There are two posts of the Sons of Veterans, one of Naval Veterans, 
one of I^nion Veterans and one of Spanish Veterans. 

V 

It has been grandly said that "the social clubs of New Haven exceed in 
number and general features of attractiveness those of any city of its size in 
the United States." Be that as it may, they seem to be sufficient to answer 
all purposes. The oldest of them is the Quinnipiac Club, which was foimded 
back in 1871, when the social club was, at least for New Haven, a novelty. 
It was frankly named from the Indians, and its first president was Frederick 
B. Mallory of the Mallory, Wheeler Company. Some of the presidents since 
him have been Hon. Nehemiah D. Sperry, Gen. George H. Ford, who was one 
of the original members, William S. Pardee and the present incumbent, Gardiner 
E. Wheeler. It has been a prosperous club from the first, including in its 
membership many of the worth-while men of New Haven. It "boarded around" 
for the first eighteen years of its existence, but in 1889. purchased its present 
home on Chapel Street ad.ioining the Taft Hotel on the east. The builders of 
the hotel tried in vain to purchase the property, that they might have a greater 
front on Chapel Street. 



280 A MODERN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN 

The Uuioii League Club, perhaps because of its larger namesake, has some- 
times enjoyed the reputation of being a political organization. In fact, it was 
organized to promote the interests of the Republican party. But of late years 
its" other object, to promote the welfare and enjoyment of its members, has 
come to the front, without permitting politics to suffer. It was organized in 
1884, and Thomas R. Trowbridge was its first president. Since him some of 
the presidents have been George B. Martin, who held the office in 1899, and 
the present head, Seymour M. Judd. It has a fine building erected especially 
for its occupancy at 1032 Chapel Street, on the site of the old Roger Sherman 
homestead. It has been famous for its political gatherings and its entertainment 
of visiting Republicans of distinction. 

Even more frankly political in its purpose is the Young Men's Republican 
Club, which has its commodious and convenient home at the corner of Crown 
and Temple streets. It was the outgrowth of the enthusiasm of the Blaine 
campaign of 1884, when it seemed that something should be done to draw 
1he young men of New Haven into the Republican party. It has ever since been 
a popular organization for Republicans, some of whom were not strictly youth- 
ful. But measured by its force and vigor, it has truly been one of the boys. 
Its membership rises well toward the 2,000 mark. In 1899 its president was 
John F. Gaffey. For some years in the early nineteen hundreds Frank J. Rice, 
later to be one of New Haven's most notable mayors, was its president. Its 
present executive is Frank L. Shay. 

In 1885 some of the Hebrew citizens of New Haven formed the Harmonic 
Club to serve the social needs of the members of thejr race. It has had since 
an honorable history, and its fine home at the foot of Elm Street has often been 
opened for social affairs which attracted all interests of the community. It 
was organized under the name of the Utopia Club. Max Adler was its honored 
president in 1889, and for more than ten years afterward. Its president now 
is I. M. Rosenbluth. The club numbers in its membership many prominent and 
respected citizens not only of New Haven but of Connecticut, being without 
doubt the most prominent Hebrew organization of its sort in the state. 

The Knights of St. Patrick is a prosperous and excellent elub whose mem- 
bership is of citizens of Irish birth, and has been highly popular from the start. 
It established itself first at the corner of Crown and Temple streets, opposite 
the Young Men's Republican Club, where it splendidly fitted up for its pur- 
poses an old and historically famous house. When that was purchased by the 
United Illuminating Company in 1906, the club removed to 223 Orange Street, 
where it has a still better clubhouse. 

Another club of the same nationality is the Knights of Columbus Club, 
whose home is now at 436 Orange Street. It is a strong organization, providing 
the best amusement and social facilities for young men and old in the large and 
growing Knights of Columbus circle. 

There is an abundance of collegiate clubs, but the Graduates' Club, admitting 
to its membership graduates of all colleges, belongs distinctly to the. city. It 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 281 

occupies at 155 Elm Street one of the oldest houses in New Haven, remodeled 
for its purposes. Organized in 1895, it has in its over two decades had a most 
prosperous existence. Naturally, its membership is mostly of Yale men, but it 
extends a true Yale hospitality to the graduates of any college who enter its 
membership. Its president this year is the Hon. John K. Beach. 

New Haven has a group of three clubs whose motive is mostly athletic. The 
oldest of them is the Country Club, organized just previous to 1897, and soon 
after acquiring grounds and erecting a fine clubhouse on the shores of Lake 
Whitney. There it has an excellent golf course, tennis grounds and other ath- 
letic facilities. The New Haven Lawn Club exists to meet the needs of those 
who wish more central and perhaps milder athletic exercises. Its clubhouse on 
Whitney Avenue is an attractive place' for social gatherings of its members and 
their guests, and it has an ample equipment of tennis courts. The Race Brook 
Country Club, organized in 1910, has a delightful modern elubhbuse near Race 
Brook in the upper part of Orange, with golf links and other athletic advantages, 
and accommodates especially the growing number of men in West Haven and 
western New Haven who seek advantages'of this character. 

The Congregational Club, sometimes classed as a church organization, has a 
more distinctly social purpose. It was founded in 1883, its objects being, in 
the words of its constitution, "to promote the better acquaintance of its members 
with each other, and the general interests of Congregationalism and Christianity 
in and about New Haven." It accomplishes these objects, and fellowship 
besides. Its first president was Rev. John E. Todd, and in its twenty-five 
years distinguished clergymen hai'e alternated with prominent laymen, it 
being against precedent to elect for a second term. The president for the current 
year is the Hon. Robert 0. Eaton. 



VI 



The successful fraternity has always had a definite purpose, worthy ideals. 
Amid the host of such fraternities in New Haven the Trades Union stands 
out. It is the inclusive co-ordination of many societies, formed to conserve the 
interests of manj' trades and industries. As far back as 1860 there were labor 
organizations in New Haven, but for nearly two decades they were no more 
than social clubs of men with a common interest. It was in 1877 that the 
first union with a vital purpose was formed. There was a union of the cigar 
makers, and there was a union of the tailors. That year they wanted to help 
the striking cigar makers of New York City, and held a picnic for the purpose. 
That was the first sign which indicated an amalgamation of the trades. The 
following year the Typographical Union entered their alliance. Gradually the 
plan grew to create a central body which should formally co-ordinate these and 
all other labor organizations of the city. 

It was in 1881 that this took shape in the Council of Trade and. Labor Unions, 



282 A MODERN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN 

afterward changed in title to the Trades Council of New Haven. H. H. Lane 
was its first president. The organization lias been active and growing in the 
thirty-seven years since, and has adopted and held to a high standard. It 
has lield many public meetings, at which it has listened to such men as Henry 
George, John Swinton, Heber Newton, Prof. William Graham Sumner and Pres- 
ident Hadley of Yale. It has founded no less than three daily and two weekly 
papers in New Haven, and has assisted several papers outside of the city. 

From the beginning it has taken an active interest in public affairs. In 
1881, accepting the general theory that municipal ownership of water supply 
was best for a city, it urged establishment by the city of its own waterworks. 
It also urged the formation of a Bureau of Labor Statistics. It has resisted 
from the first all efforts of political interests to control or swing the vote of 
its membership in any given direction. It has been discriminatingly loyal to 
the interests of fellow workmen in other cities and states. In 1883 it gave 
a banquet in honor of the French delegates to the Boston Industrial Exposition, 
and since that time has had the friendly interest of the workmen of Paris. 

It was in May, 1884, at Hartford, that the Connecticut branch of the 
American Federation of Labor was formed, and in this the New Haven Council 
took an active part. It aftei-ward had a leading influence in the promotion 
of labor organizations throughout the state, and in inducing their affiliation 
with the state and national bodies. At present it includes over thirty locals, 
representing most of the different crafts and trades, with a total membership 
of over 10,000 men and women. 

Never was the organization more awake' to its opportunities, nor a greater 
factor in the life of the city, than under its present officers and at the present 
time. It has been a force, not only in the city but in the state, and has won 
the attention and respect of the legislature as a civic rather than a political body. 
Within the past year, Patrick F. O'Meara, president of the New Haven Trades 
Council, has been appointed a member of the State Board of Arbitration and 
Mediation, a notable recognition not only of the man but of the organization. 
In New Haven the Trades Council and its forty allied organizations are recog- 
nized as making an important factor in the city's civic as well as industrial 
affairs, and as tending to exert a strong influence for the welfare of the 
community. 

In the last year the council has participated in such efforts as the successful 
opposition to the widening of Temple Street for the benefit of a few motorists, 
for the establishment of a comfort station and for the promotion of the Liberty 
loans. In the matter of growth it has had a prosperous year, and especially 
have its women's organizations shown vigorous progress. Its present officers are : 

President, Patrick F. O'Meara, delegate from the Plumbers and Steamfitters ; 
vice president, Frank A. Fitzgerald, of the Hoisting and Portable Engineers; 
recording secretary, Joseph J. Reilly, of the Typogi-aphical Union ; financial sec- 
retary, August F. Striby, of the Bakers and Confectionery Workers : treasurer, 
Daniel B. McKay, of the Street Railway Employes; organizer, Ira M. Ornburn, 



o 



8 

a 



o 

r 










AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 283 

of the Cigarmakers ; sergeant-at-arms, Francis P. McCabe; board of trustees, 
John A. Dunn, Bartholomew Saverty and George Lewis; executive board, Eliza- 
beth Dunnigan, E. L. Warden, John J. Landrigan and Thomas Mann. 

Within a year the council lias secured headquarters befitting its importance, 
and greatly facilitating its work, in the Sagal Block at 215 Meadow Street. As 
now furnished, this is one of the finest homes of labor in New England, giving 
ample room for business headquarters, meeting halls and social enjoyment. 



CHAPTER XXVIII 
MERIDEN 

COLONIAL ORIGINS AND IlISTOBY, ITS NAMLNG, INCORfORATION OP TOWN AND CITY, 
LATER GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT TO THE CITY OP TODAY 

At tlie sharp northeastern point of New Haven County is a tow^^ whose ap- 
pearance on the map is most misinforming of its importance in the state and 
county. It is the town whose dynamic force is the virile young City of Meriden, 
and it owes its place in the state and much of its history to its inclusion of that 
city. There are but 16.38 square miles of it altogether. It is irregular in shape 
as well as .small in area. Two of its sides are straight, but they follow no com- 
pass cardinals. On the north and west it is notched like a circular saw. But 
the notches stand for history or striking features of topography. It is a town of 
character. 

Meriden always stands out in the view from afar. From the heights of New 
Haven, of C'armel. of Totoket, there ever loom up in the blue distance the Hang- 
ing Hills, with their sharp "Old ]Man of the Mountains," West Peak, the highest 
point in New Haven County. Or perhaps Lamentation, lower but longer, first 
catches the view. Between them is a pleasant valley. And though the heights 
as striking features have their part, it is with the valley that we have to do. 

West Peak, the pride of ^Meriden aspirants, is a watchtower worth acliieving. 
From its thousand feet above the sea one can spy out the whole country, with 
nothing effectual to obstruct the vit-w. To the far west of the county he can pick 
out, one by one, the points that form the multi-terminals of the Berkshire and 
Litchfield highlands, and further south is that striking range M'hich ends them 
all with sentinel West Rock at its point. To the east is Higby. the mount in which 
Jliddletown rejoices, just beyond IMeriden's own Mount Lamentation. Southeast 
there are Totoket and its associate points, watchtowers for Branford and Guil- 
ford. And almost due south the old Giant sleeps, his northern contour not 
signally different from that which New Haven gets from the .southward. Beyond, 
blue in the sunlight or gray in the storm, is the ever changing sea that reminds 
I\Ieriden it is an inland region. But it is an inland region in which to rejoice. 

Meriden 's early history is as distinctive as its face. It is young and yet it 
IS old. Though cbnsiderably lacking of six score years as an incorporated town, 
it has beginnings which make it dare to rise in the presence of communities like 
Plymouth and Hartford and New Haven. For the place Meriden and the name 

284 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 285 

Meriden had their standing as early as 1660, and have their lines all the way 
from tliat day to this. It has been said that Meriden owes its settlement to the 
Hartford colony, and in a manner it is true. It has been as vigorously claimed 
that it is a part of the New Haven family, and that also is the ease. Prima facie 
evidence that the latter is so is found in ileridcn's present inclusion in New 
Haven County. But this did not come al)out without some friction of the fam- 
iliar sort between Hartford and New Haven. 

That purchase which in 1638 Davenport and Eaton made from Moutowese 
the son of the sachem of Middletowu, indefinite as it was in its boundaries, seems 
to have been conceded to run on the north to about the center of what is now 
Meriden. The region between the present northern boundary of Wallingford 
and that line, then or somewhat later known as Pilgrims' Harbor, was conceded 
to Wallingford from the first. Hut from there northward to the present line 
between ]\Ieriden and Berlin Hartford claimed the territory. 

This region was not, at first, settled by many people. About 1661 Jonathan 
Gilbert, pioneer, came down from northward and acquired, by virtue of purchase 
from the Indians, a large tract — practically the whole of the upper part of 'Sleri- 
den — which he called Meriden Farm. He and those who followed him, v\hatever 
they paid for the land, seem not to have been as fortunate in holding their title 
a-s were the Davenport purchasers. There is documentai'y i-ecord that they made 
that purchase from the Indians at least three times over, and tradition has it that 
some of the land was purchased five times. 

In connection with this "Meriden Farm" hangs a tale about the naming of 
the place. The reference works loosely state that the city we now know was 
named Meriden from the little town of Meriden in Warwickshire, England, and 
the trusting let it go at that. But that town has not, either in its character or 
its surroundings, any likeness to the ileriden we know or the Meriden which 
was two centuries and more ago. None of the Connecticut pilgi'ims, moreover, 
had any connection with that town. Mr. Curtis, Meriden 's accurate historian, 
has been at considerable pains to look up this question, and the summary of his 
conclusions is interesting. He says that, though he finds no evidence to support 
the theory that Meriden was named from the town near Coventry, he believes there 
was an English place which gave it the name. This was not a town, but was, as was 
Meriden in the beginning, a farm. And it was in topographical features very 
like to the place of old Jonathan Gilbert's settlement. This was Meriden or 
Meriden farm, about three miles south of Dorking, in Surrey County. Only 
three miles from it is the parish of Ockley, where Rev. Henry AVhitfield, the 
Guilford pioneer, was pastor for many years, and where Rev. John Davenport 
and Rev. Thomas Hooker frequently visited. Mr. Curtis 's conclusion, then, is 
that some of the early pilgrims who came from or were familiar with that very 
locality in England, struck with the similarity of the places, named Jonathan 
Gilbert's farm Meriden. Or perhaps he did it himself. As to the siguificanee 
of the word, Mr. Curtis, fully aware that an English -name was never given with- 
out a reason, digs to the roots of "meri, " meaning pleasant, and "den," meaning 



286 A MODERN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN 

vale. And it is a pleasant vale, though its rural look has been ever since most of 
us can remember blotted beneath briek blocks and city pavements, and the smoke 
of factories joins with its trees to make shade. 

So Jonathan Gilbert was the lord of Meriden foi' many years, and his estate 
went to his son-in-law Captain Andrew Belcher, and in turn to his son. Governor 
Jonathan Belcher. The three generations had to do with the tavern which 
Jonathan Gilbert originally established there. For this, be it known, was on 
the "Old Colony" turnpike which ran between Hartford and New Haven, and 
that was then, as now, one of the most traveled roads in Connecticut. So it was 
that i\leriden became one of the familiar spots to all the travelers, at least, of 
the colony, for the trip from capital to capital, in those days, was too long to 
make without stopping to gain refreshment for man and beast. And the man, 
the tavern slates showed, required the more refreshment. 

In the course of time, we may assume, the owners of Meriden farm found 
that they had more land than they wanted, and neighbors gathered in the vicin- 
ity of the Old Colony road. With their names the older historian is more con- 
cerned. One should be noted for the place-name he has left, Edward Higby, 
who bought the tract which includes Iligby Mountain to the east of the ^Meriden 
tract. That height made a natural division between the towns and the counties, 
but it also made a sort of connection. There is strife between Meriden and 
MiddletowTi to this day, but it is the strife which exists between ambitious 
neighbors. 

For a good many years the neighbors were few and scattered, this by reason, 
seemingly, of the fact that the broad acres attracted wealthy, at least ambitious 
farmers. So we find in those early days such a group as Bartholomew Foster, 
with 360 acres, John Merriam, with 300 acres, and Nathaniel Roys, with a tract 
large enough to be dignified as a "grant." By 1724 settlers nafned Robinson, 
Parsons, Aspinwall, Andrews, Rich and Scofel had come to ,ioin the group that 
made up the upper, or Jleriden section of the town. 

What was to be the center of the city of Meriden still had its distinctive name 
"Pilgrims' Harbor." ilr. Curtis thinks this also was imported from the same 
English locality which produced Meriden. He finds a "Cold Harbor" in Surrey 
County, named so after a cold spring it contained. In Pilgrims' Harbor also 
there was a spring. The spring is gone now, and the natural beauty of the old 
valley is hidden by city pavements and the like, for this is the center of the city 
of Meriden. Harbor brook has met the obscurement of the stream which is set- 
tled upon by a city. So have the lowlands along the south branch of the lirook, 
called in those days "Dog's ^tisery," been brought to grade and building lots. 
What now we know as South Meriden was then Falls Plain. In these localities 
such names as Royce, Hall, Curtiss or Curtis, Yale, Hooper, Mix, Atwater and 
Hull were among the founders, and these and others still stand as landmarks, 
so to speak, in a multitude of modern names which all the world has brought to 
Meriden, as it has to most other New England communities. 

These parts of the Meriden that was to be did not unite in strength, however, 




rcmrti-^y nf H. Walts I,iii.-> 



11 K'lis .\ii:_\i(iiMAL ]ji;i;Aia. aikkiiH' .\ 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 287 

verj' early. But they did fe^l a sort of community spirit as early as 1728, when 
by petition of the people in the three villages and the act of the general court 
the "North Farmers" lands were set off as a parish of the town of Wallingford. 
Thus they gained their religious independence. For their civil they waited un- 
til 1806. The town so formed had the same boundaries as the old parish of Meri- 
den. The City of IMeridcn, which is confined mainly to the section of old known 
as Pilgrims' Harbor, that is, the valley of the brook, was not incorporated until 
sixty-one years later. It has, however, had in its half century a record of re- 
markable achievement and progress. 

Wallingford, the mother, kept ahead of the child — if ileriden may properly 
be called the child of Wallingford, for several years. Wallingford and Meriden 
had together, six years before the separation, 3,214 people. Four years after 
Meriden came to stand by itself, it had 1,249 people — was, in fact as it appeared, 
no more than a husky country town. In the next thirty years it had increased 
only 631. Not until the census of 1850 did it pass Wallingford. Its progress 
after that was rapid, a good index of the importance of, its manufacturing and 
general industrial development. It had more than doubled in the next decade, 
and by 1870 had become 10,495 — that being the first census after it became a 
city. In ten years more it had almost doubled again, in 1890 it had grown to 
25,423, in 1900 to 28,695. Its century, or soon after, found it a city of 32,066 
people, and it is in 1918 estimated at approximately 35,000. 

We have, then, the old town and the new city, whose history is very ancient 
and interesting, whose modern development, even, is very recent. It is known far 
and wide as the "Silver City." The development of the manufacture of goods 
from silver and similar metals gave the city its fame, to be sure, but it should be 
noticed that among the thirty-two lines of manufacture and l20 factories which 
make the industrial Meriden of 1918, silver is only one and its factories are only 
nine. Its manufactures at the present time are feeling the universal inflation, 
but Meriden, less than most of the larger cities of Connecticut, is subject to a 
present feverish activity which may be expected to die down after the present 
flame has passed. Its prosperity is substantial, like its people. Its foundations 
as well in manufacturing as in citizenship, religion, education, finance and archi- 
tecture, rest on the "seven glad hills." 

The town which was formed from the parish of Meriden early in the last 
century had its own church and a few scattering schools. The city that now rises 
has two Congregational churches instead of the one, and in addition five Baptist 
chxxrehes, two Protestant Episcopal, four Methodist Episcopal, seveii Roman 
Catholic, three Lutheran, one each of Universalist, Jewish, Peoples' Undenomi- 
national and Christian Science. As auxiliaries to these are the City Missionary 
society, the Young Men's and Young Women's Christian Associations. 

The town of Jleriden has the modest area of 10,473 acres. In the center of 
it, a municipality wholly surrounded by country, is the city of Meriden, an ir- 
regular octagon, approximately two miles wide and two miles long, composed of 
five wards. The Town of Meriden had in 1916 a grand list of $24,582,884, all but 



288 A MODERN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN 

about two millions of it being within the city. Without the city limits agriculture 
continues to be the principal industry, the growing city serving as a promoter of 
prosperous market gardens and dairy farms. The city has a low tax rate, only 
eight and three-fourths mills in 1916. 

Meriden is a most accessible city. On the main line between Springfield and 
New Haven, it has frequent service from the railroad. That rocky and winding 
railroad which some years ago wandered from Cromwell across to Waterbury 
still has a station in the city, though it is hardly regarded, locally, as a public 
service utility. Meriden 's most generally used transportation service, however, 
is electric. That part of the old :Meriden and Waterbury line which is between 
Meriden and Middletown was some years ago electrified, and is now run a.s a 
swift suburban service between the two cities. It swings from Meriden north- 
east through AVestfiefd in the town of Middletown, and enters that city over the 
tracks of the line to Berlin, which has also been electrified. Southward an electric 
line runs to South Meriden, Tracy, Yalesville and Wallingford, and westward 
and northward there is a winding line which runs through to New Britain by 
way of Milldale, Plantsville, Southington and Plainville, connecting for Bristol, 
Lake Compounce, Waterbury and New Haven. There is also a line to Berlin. 
The town has postoffices at Meriden, Station A and South Meriden, with ten 
sub stations. 

]\Ieriden has five public parks, two of which will compare favorably with 
those of any city in the state. The planners of the city did not find room for a 
"green," but there has been since 1880, near the center, a breathing space of 
fifteen acres — City Park. It is a handsome and well kept public square, beauti- 
fully shaded and attractive. It has been, moreover, a foundation. 

Central in Meriden 's park system is the name of Walter Hubbard. There is 
hardly an institution or a good work in Meriden in whose foundation or con- 
struction the searcher will fail to find the hand of this man, who for more than 
half a century was in a large sense Meriden 's leading citizen. But great as was 
his part in the city's industrial foundation, material as was his work in many 
other ways, he did no nobler or more lasting service than his part in making this 
park passible. So it stands to exalt his name — a thousand acres of commanding 
height and delightful woodland and meadov, in numy ways Connecticut's 
greatest park. 

It was Walter Hubbard, too, who in 1901 purchased the greater part of what 
is now Brookside Park, extending for three-quarters of a mile along both sides 
of Harbor Brook, named it and gave it to the city. It is a beautiful spot of 
.shade and ponds and grass, another of the notable parks of the state. 

Bradley Park, in the southwestern part of the city, is another breathing 
space, and provides relief from the heat, and the blessing of green grass for a 
congested section. Hanover Park in South Meriden has been a commercial en- 
terprise, conducted first by the Meriden Street Railway Company, later by the 
Connecticut Company. It is an amusement resort of the somewhat common 
type, but has many attractions and serves a useful purpose. 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 289 

Merideu had its disastrous fire, oiih- a jear later than Chicago's great con- 
flagration. Perhaps, for a city of only 10,000 people, a fire loss of $150,000 was 
as serious as Chicago's thousand times that. That was the point at which Meri- 
den turned from the volunteer to the paid fire system. The city now has a fire 
service composed of one truck and five hose companies, with motorized equip- 
ment of the latest type and the most efficient fire fighting agencies. In connection 
with this the city has its own very adequate water supply system, whose con- 
struction was commenced in 1867. An excellent gravity supply of water is 
secured from sources in the Hanging Hills, and to meet the great factory needs 
there is a pumping station across the border of Berlin. Meriden now gets its 
water from four large reservoirs, so situated as to grade that they sufficiently 
supply fire, factory and residence needs for all altitudes in the city. 

Jleriden's sewer system is in its character a model for larger cities. At first 
it may have seemed a misfortune, now it should be viewed as a blessing, that no 
large water course was at hand to give the cheap and easy means which many 
cities so negligently and shortsightedly adopt for the disposal of their sewage. 
Meriden was compelled to find another way. To be sure, when it commenced its 
sewer system in 1892 its problem was a comparatively simple one. The system 
employs broad irrigation and filtration, the sewage being, by a considerable feat 
of good engineering, siphoned beneath the bed of the Quinnipiac River and con- 
veyed to filtration beds on the desert below South Meriden. This plant, con- 
structed at an original cost of nearly $150,000, has been extended as the city's 
ne«ds have increased, until it has cost more than double that. 

These are but significant indications of the way the .young city of Meriden 
has met all its physical problems as they have come up. It is a competent, efficient 
community, controlled by men of character as well as of substance. It is in 
many ways a typical Amei'ican city. In many ways, as we ma.y discover, it is a 
decidedly original one. 



CHAPTER XXIX 
MBRIDEN (Continued) 

CHURCHES, SCHOOLS, CIVIC AND SOCIAL PROGRESS — MEN WHO HAVE MADE MERIDEN, 
PHYSICIANS, LAWYERS, LEADERS IN LOCAL, STATE AND NATIONAL LIFE 

I 

Meriden is lightly reckoned, by some who know it supertieially, a community 
where the material is uppermost. Such an opinion diminishes in direct propor- 
tion to the care with which the town is studied. As the young town and the 
younger city are found, on examination, to have roots in the depths of colonial 
history, so the supposed mere industrial community is revealed, with real under- 
standing, as an edifice of character and fineness. Sometimes they speak of New 
Haven as the city of churches. It would need to add half as many to its present 
number to have as many in proportion as Meriden. So, on through the list, it will 
be found that in schools, in public institutions, in civic and social advantages, 
Meriden is more than able to match, jaroportionately, its older, larger and more 
pretentious neighbor and mother community. 

Meriden, too, has the ancient church of the fathers. Back in the days when 
Center Church was alone in its glory in New Haven, where only here and there 
a church of the Pilgrims stood at the oldest points of settlement around the 
county and the stat^, the First Church was founded in Meriden. That was in 
1729. The five or six hundred people who had by this time settled on the now 
divided Meriden and other farms did not so much mind the long journey to 
attend church in Wallingford, but they had begun to feel their community im- 
portance, and a separate church was an achievement, even if it was a responsi- 
bility. They did not, however, take their church as far north as the vicinity of 
Jonathan Gilbert's old time tavern, on Meriden farm. They came south to 
Pilgrims' Harbor, and built on Meeting House Hill. It seems, moreover, that 
they built somewhat before they were fully organized, for the date of the church 
is given us as 1729, while the date of the building is set at 1727. There were 
fifty-nine persons who formed this body, and began separate wor.ship under the 
leadership of Rev, Theopbilus Hall, though there were some temporary preachers 
before him. 

The churcli liad grown in numbers and strength so that in 1755 they needed 
a new building, and this was erected on Broad Street. The third edifice was 
built in 18.30, on the same site. It was the noble building which still, after re- 

290 




Courtesy of H. Wales Lines €>•. 

WALT1:R HUBBARD ilEMoKIAf. CHAPEL. MERIDEN 




Courtesy of H. Wales Lines 0'», 

FIRST CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH, MERIDEN 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 291 

peated alterations which have not marred its distinguished areliitec-ture, serves 
Center Church. For in 1848 there was a division of the people. Prosperity and 
population had come to Meriden in the period just before that, and the church 
had so increased its membership that it felt the need of a new and larger build- 
ing. This was erected, in 1846, on Colony Street, half a mile from the old site. 
But something arose which caused a difference of opinion among the members. 
Most likely the then familiar question of the abolition of slavery had something 
to do with it. At any rate, something like half a hundred members withdrew and 
formed the Center Church. The old building on Broad Street was vacant, and 
they secured possession of it. There they have remained and worshipped ever 
since — they and the new worshippers who have come in the changing process 
of seven decades. 

The first pastor of the First Church, Rev. Theophilus Hall, remained until 
his death in 1767. At the time of the division Rev. George "W. Perkins was pas- 
tor, serving the church from 1841 to 1854. It was from 1866 to 1868 that the 
brilliant Rev. William H. H. Murray, famous son of old Guilford, more famous 
"Adirondack ilurray," was pastor of this church. The Rev. Asher Anderson, 
who came to the church in 1890, was in the dozen years of his stay one of the best 
known and popular Congregational clergymen of Connecticut. Since 1902 Rev. 
Albert J. Lord ha.s been pastor, and the church has advanced to a position of 
even more positive religious leadership in the community. It was incorporated 
in 1893. Today it has almost a thousand members, and is one of the strongest 
churches of its denomination in the state. 

It was a notable example of New England church architecture wliich the sep- 
arating few who formed Center Church secured iu 1848. It was and is one of 
the best specimens in Connecticut of the jnire Doric edifice, its most prominent 
rivals in this section being the old North Church on New Haven Green and the 
distinguished old Congregational Church in Madison. Set on a hill, preserved 
within in harmony with its appearance without, it is an inspiration to worship 
and to service. 

It was Rev. Ashabel A. Stevens who came to lead the seceders who formed 
Centeif Church. He remained with them until 1854. Rev. James C. Wilson was 
pastor from 1892 to 1896, being succeeded by Rev. John H. Grant. In 1911 
Rev. Thomas B. Powell, previously assistant pastor of Plymouth Church of New 
Haven, and later at Livingston, ^Montana, was called. His winning and self 
sacrificing leadership has greatly built up the church, which now has a member- 
ship of approximately 500. Under previous pastors the people had kept the 
church appointments within in harmony with its dignified architecture. The 
bare old windows had been replaced with leaded glass of colonial pattern, and 
the decorations had been made to conform to the Ionic type of architecture. 

;\Ir. Powell found a fine old church building, but his experience had taught 
him that the modern church needs something more than an audience room by 
which to serve its community. The only approach to chapel or parish house was 
the basement, which after the manner of many New England basements had been 



292 A MODERN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN 

fitted up as a "lecture room," and had to serve for Sunday School, prayer meet- 
ings and all social gatherings. Moreover, the problem of securing a place on 
which to erect a parish house, if the church was ready to build one, was difficult. 
The building stands ou an extremely steep side hill, so steep that the basement, 
and even the rear of the sub-basement, stand out of ground. No available land 
for another building was found in the vicinity. Anything in the nature of a 
lean-to would spoil the architecture of the church. 

So Mr. Powell suddenly decided to make a virtue of the church's difficulty 
and necessity. First, he "dug out" the basement. That is, he so excavated at 
its sides that, except at the front, it is completely a daylight room. Then he ex- 
tended the sub-basement under the whole building. So he had, beneath the 
church, what was virtually a parish house of two stories. This was rearranged, 
redecorated and in general made into a modern auxiliary church building. At a 
cost far beneath that of a separate building, with the maximum of convenience 
and without in the least marring the symmetry of its fine structure, the Center 
Church had an efficient parish house. In this work, which the pastor inspired 
and directed, the people have supported him amply with enthusiasm, hard work 
and funds. 

The second of the churches of ^Merideu, also founded when the community 
was still a part of the town of Wallingford, is the First Baptist, organized in 
1786. Adherents of the Baptist creed, scattered all over the town of Wallingford 
and the parish of ^leriden, previous to this time worshipped at some convenient 
place midway between the two towns. This combined congregation was for some 
years led by Rev. John Merriman. His death in 1784 seems to have been in part 
the cause of the formation of a separate church. Two years later the Baptist 
Church of Meriden was formally organized. It had but twelve members at that 
time, however, and they did not feel able to support a pastor, but followed 
"elders" for several years. One of the first of these was Samuel ]\liller, who for 
some time conducted the worship as a layman, but was ordained a minister in 
1806. As the church 's first pastor he served until 1829. It was during his pas- 
torate that the church's first building was erected, about 1801. After several 
short pastorates, the church called Rev. Harvey JMiller, son of the first pastor, 
in 1838. He in turn was succeeded by Rev. D. Heniy Miller, D. D. It was dur- 
ing the pastorate of the former that the present fine colonial type church building 
was erected. Other pastors of note who have served the church are Rev. W. G. 
Fennell, for eight years from 1892. and Rev. Burtt Neville Timbie, the present 
pastor. 

The next of the Baptist churches to be organized was Main Street in 1861, 
an offspring of the First Baptist which has now outgrown the mother. There 
was worship in a chapel building until the church became strong enough to erect 
a substantial edifice. This it did in 1867-68, the same being its present fine brick 
and stone home. This church was called the West ]Meriden Baptist until 1881, 
when it adopted the present name. The society was incorporated in 1886. Eight 
pastors led the church for the first quarter-century of its existence, from Rev. 




Courtesor of H. Wales Lines C". 

ST. JOSEPH'S ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH, MERIDEN 




ST. ROSK KOMAX CATHOI.IC CHURCH. MERIDEN 




ST. STANISLAUS ROilAX CATHOLIC SCHOOL, MERIDEN 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 293 

E. M. Jerome, who .was with it iu its foiuuliiig days, to Rev. Edwin "\V. Husted, 
who served it for the years following 1891. The pastor at present is Rev. J. W. 
Miisson. 

The other Baptist congi-earations in town are the Olive Branch Snnday llis- 
sion, of which Warren J. Parker is superintendent, the German Baptist, founded 
in 1873, whose pastorate was vacant iu 1917 ; the Swedish Baptist, established 
1887, Rev. Alfred Engdahl, pastor; and the Italian Baptist, founded in 1910, of 
which Rev. Joachim E. Parella is pastor. 

When St. Andi-ews, the oldest Protestant Episcopal Church iu Merideu, was 
established, Cheshire had been separated from Wallingford only nine years, and 
Jleriden was still a part of that town. Cheshire, from early times a center of 
Episcopal faith, was sponsor for the new church, and for .several years furnished 
it with leadership at long distance. The church wa.s founded in 1789, but for the 
first thirty-five years it had no resident rector, depending on missionary service 
from Cheshire and Wallingford. In 1824 the Rev. Ashbel Baldwin settled as 
its rector, and in the following sixty years the church had fourteen rectors. In 
1885 the Rev. Arthur T. Randall came to the church, and ha.s since remained. 
Now in the fourth decade of his service, he is rounding out a remarkable period 
and enviable position in the community. The church's house of worship, erected 
in 1866, is one of the city's fine examples of architecture. 

All Saints' Episcopal, one of the younger churches of the city, was organized 
in 1893, and the same year its admirable church building was erected on West 
Main Street. Its rector then, and for several years following, was Rev. E. 
Sprague Ashley. He was succeeded by Rev. I. Newton Phelps, and the present 
rector is Rev. Francis S. Lippitt. 

The First Methodist Church of Meriden, whose building is at East ^lain and 
Pleasant streets, dates its organization from 1844. It has had a useful and i)ros- 
perous career, and some men of power in its pulpit. Some of the notable ones 
of the recent period have been Rev. John Rhey Thompson, who was its pastor from 
1889 to 1894, Rev. F. B. Stockdale, and the present able leader. Rev. Victor G. 
Mills. The South ^leriden Methodist Church, now presided over by Rev. Archi- 
liald Treymaine, was founded in 1851, and for several years the two churches 
together served all the Methodists in the town and city of ileriden. But in 1885 
growth and expansion had made a third seem desirable, and Trinity Church was 
formed. Its first pastor was the able Rev. William F. ^larkwick, later pastor of 
the St. John Street Church at New Haven, and some of the others have been 
Rev. Duane N. Griffin, now of Hartford, Rev. B. S. Pillsbnry and Rev. Frederick 
Saunders, the present pastor. The latest of the Methodist churches, which has 
been doing a good work since 1890, is the Parker A. ^I. E. Zi(in, of which the 
pastor is Rev. Clarence A. Gooding. 

The first of what is now a strong galaxy of Roman Catholic churches was St. 
Rose's, founded in 1849. It has six associates now. Faithful missionary work 
by Father J. Teevins preceded tlie foundation, but ill health obliged him to 
forego his right to be its first pastor. Rev. Hugh O'Reilly came to tlic leadership. 



294 A MODERN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN 

Faithful and able men since him who have guided the church to valuable service 
havi' been Rev. Thomas Quinii and Rev. Paul F. :\IeAlenny, and the present 
Ri'v. .lolui Neale. LL. D. This is one of the strong Catholic parishes of Connecti- 
cut, doing an excellent work through the church, a convent and parochial school. 
Following its leadership, St. Laurent's French Catholic Church, of which Rev. A. 
Van Oppen is now pastor, was organized in 1880, the Church of the Holy Angels 
in 1887. Of this the first pastor was the Rev. R. F. :\Ioore, and the present is 
Rev. L. A. Guinan. The other churches of this faith, in the order of their founda- 
tion, are St. JIary's German Catholic, pastor. Rev. Nicholas F. X. Schneider: 
St. Joseph's, pastor, Rev. John T. Lynch; St. Stanislaus, Polish, pastor, Rev. 
John Lotiis Cepa : Our Lady of :\Iount Carmel, Italian, pastor. Rev. Domenieo 

Rieci. 

Meriden has three churches of tiie Lutheran faith, the first, St. John's Ger- 
man Lutheran, established in 1865. It is today a growing and useful church, 
with one of the handsoiuc luiildings of the city, at the corner of Liberty and 
Norwood streets. It has been led by several men of marked ability, among them 
the Rev. S. F. Glaser, who is at present its pastor. The other churches of this 
order are Immanuel German Lutheran, established in 1889, pastor, Rev. Paul 
A. Kirsch, and the Swedish Lutheran, founded the following year, whose pastor 
is Rev. Olaf Lnndgren. 

St. Paul's Universalist Church was organized in 1863, and has done valuable 
work under several pastors, of whom the latest is Rev. Thomas H. Saunders. 

There is in the city one synagogue of the Jewish faith, founded in 1892. S. 
Kennedy is the president of the congregation. For some years there was a 
Seventh Day Advent Church, but that has now disappeared, and in its place there 
is a People's LTndenominational Church, of w-hieh Rev. C. H. Reimers is the 
leader. Meriden has also one Christian Science Church. 

Back of these churches, or possibly as mediums through which their [leople 
may work, are the City Missionary Society, and the McAU Auxiliary. The 
former society has ilrs. George W. Haywood as its president, and the city mis- 
sionary is Miss Margaret Burns, ilrs. LeGrand Bevins is president of the 
McAll Auxiliary. 

ileriden has an equipment of public, semi-public and private schools of 
which, regardless of age, any city of its size might be proud. A central high 
school of distinguished architecture, constructed some twenty-five years ago at 
a cost of $100,000, cares for th« secondary educational needs of city and town, 
and seventeen grade and district schools in six districts, together with seven 
parochial schools, care for the rest of ileriden's 7,700 children of school age. 
In these there is a force of 159 public school teachers. Ten of the public schools 
have the full eight grades. In detail, the educational ei|uip7nent of Meriden, 
as it stood in the fall of 1917, is as follows: 

Superintendent of Schools — David Gibbs. 

High School— Principal, Francis L. Bacon: a.ssistant principal. Ivan G. 
Smith. Thirtv-two teachers. 




CILWECTR'IT SIHOOL FOR JidYS, .MKKIUEX 




Courtesy of S. Wales Lines Co. 

JIERIUEN HIGH SCHOOL 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 295 

Church Street — Principal, William E. Gardner; seven teachers. 

Columbia Street — Principal, Edna il. Harris; five teachers. 

East — Viola Lacourciere. 

East Grammar — Principal, Frank P. Denning; ten teachers. 

East Primary — Principal, Minnie Lallj', two teachers. 

Franklin Street — Principal, Au^ista A. Fischer; eight teachers. 

Hanover — Principal, Nellie E. Simons; five teachers. 

King Street — Principal, Jennie D. Wood ; nine teachers. 

Lewis Avenue — Principal, Cornelia A. Comstock; eight teachers. 

Liberty Street — Principal, Anne P. Foskett ; six teachers. 

North Broad Street — Principal, Jlrs. Nellie F. Russell ; eight teachers. 

North Colony Street — Principal, Minnie S. Wiles; seven teachers. 

South Broad Street — Principal, Margaret Hickey; eight teachers. 

Southeast — Esther P. Gardner. 

West Grammar — Principal, H. Eugene Niekless; nine teachers. 

West ]\Iain Street — Principal, Anna T. L. Burke ; eight teachers. 

Willow Street — Principal, Katherine H. Curran ; four teachers. 

Supervisors — Music, G. Frank Goodale; Drawing, Maude E. Simpson; Physi- 
cal training, George Baer; Penmanship, W. R. Stalte; Domestic arts, Hazel 
Harmon ; Manual arts, Frederick Landers. 

The members of the school committee were : Charles F. Rockwell, chairman ; 
Dr. Alfred A. Rousseau, secretary'; Burton G. Lawton, treasurer; Harold G. 
Hall, clerk; Lewis E. Clark, ilichael F. Kelley, Henry Dryhurst, Oscar L Dessiu, 
Frank L. Billard. Edgar J. Perkins, Denis T. O'Brien, Jr., Dr. Cornelius J. 
Ryan. Thomas J. Shanley. 

This public educational force is supplemented by seven parochial schools, as 
follows: Immanuel German Lutheran Saturday School; St. Bridget's Convent 
(St. Rose); St. John's Evangelical Lutheran Graded School; St. Joseph's; St. 
Laurent's French Catholic: St. IMary's (St. Rose) ; St. Stanislaus. 

Tliroughout the state ileriden has a mention it does not altogether enjoy as 
the home of the Connecticut School for Boys, which some will still persist in 
calling the "Reform School." This, like Middletown's possession of the Con- 
necticut Hospital for the Insane, is made a matter of much thoughtless and 
meaningless jibe. In the first place Meriden is not at all responsible for the 
school in (jnestion, and in the second place it is in these days an institution in 
which to have pride, not shame. Since 1851 ileriden has had this institution 
for the restraint if necessary, the training in any case, of minors who reach a 
point of delinquency or a height of so-called crime which requires imprisonment 
imder the law. In recent years the Connecticut Reformatory at Cheshire has 
taken over the most difficult classes of these minors, and the school at ileriden 
has become more strictly a training school, with a higher character of inmates. 
It is at present under the .superintendency of Charles M. Williams. It is a 
school for the making of the boys so far as may be useful, well equipped citizens, 
and it is largely fulfilling that purpose. 



296 A MODERN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN 

Meriden is a city of fraternity and sociability, if one may judge from the 
number of social and fraternal organizations. In round numbers there are 155. 
These include eight lodges of the Masonic order, eight lodges of Odd Fellows, 
nine courts of the Foresters of America, three lodges of the American Order of 
United "Workmen, four lodges of the Knights of Pythias, three councils of the 
Knights of Columbus, two lodges of the New England Order of Protection, two 
conclaves of the Heptasophs, thre« councils of the Royal Arcanum, two lodges 
of the Knights of Honor, four divisions of the Ancient Order of Hibernians, four 
councils of the Catholic Women's Benevolent League, Meriden lodge of Elks, 
Captain John Couch branch of the S. A. R., Ruth Hart and Susan Carrington 
chapters of the D. A. R., four temperance societies, Merriam post of the G. A. R. 
and its Women's auxiliary, a camp of Sons of Veterans and of Spanish War 
Veterans and Eaton Guard Veteran associations. The principal social clubs, of 
which there are twelve, are the Colonial Club, the Highland Country Club, the 
Franklin Club, the Cosmopolitan Club, the Franco-American and the French- 
American Country Club, the Motor Boat, the Rifle and the Wheel clubs. 

ilerideu has a live and well e()uipped Young Men's Christian Association, 
organized in 1865, with its own building on Colony Street. It serves the com- 
munity, through its young men and its old, ideally. A. E. Boynton is president, 
and the general secretai-y is V. V. Roseboro. The city also has a well supported 
Young Women's Christian Association at 30 Crown Street, now under the di- 
rection of Mrs. Emily J. Youngs, who is president and general secretary. 

Public library development, slow in many of the older towns of the state, 
was not so tardy in Meriden. There was a library as early as 1796, and from 
that time on the needs of the community were fairly well met. The public 
library, as now known, was started in 1895, and in 1900 Mrs. George R. Curtis 
offered to erect a building in memory of her late husband, George Redfield Curtis. 
The present fitting and artistic building was completed in 1903, giving ]\Ieriden 
a home for a library that now numbers 23,983 volumes. The president of the 
board is George H. Wilcox, and the librarian Corinne A. Deshon. It is a monu- 
ment to the life of a man and the broad generosity of a woman. 

Another Curtis Memorial, a loving tribute to Lemuel J. Curtis, is the Curtis 
Home for Children and Old Ladies, a commodious and very comfortably appointed 
institution at 380 Crown Street. It is one of ^Meriden's noblest and most useful 
institutions. 



II 

No one disputes the claim that :\Ieriden has a city hospital unexcelled liy any 
New England city of its size. It stands for the united generosity of a large 
number of the city's men and women of means. The list of incorporators pays 
tribute to some of them : E. J. Doolittle, N. L. Bradley, John C. Byxbee, Robert 
H. Curtis, Rev. J. H. Chapiii, George H. Wilcox, Isaac C. Lewis, H. C. Wilcox, 
George R. Curtis, John Sutliff, Charles Parker, Seth J. Hall, Eli Ives, Levi E. 




ST. .lOSEPHs SCHOOL. :M):Rini".x 




ilKRIDKX HOSPnWL. MKRIDKX 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 297 

Coe, Walter Iluliliard, H. Wales Lines, William F. Graham, Abiram Chamber- 
lain. It is a roll of honor. That was in 1885. In the years since the hospital, 
keeping pace with all needs, has done a great work. The president of the board 
now is Edward Miller. 

Most of Jleriden's thirty-three physicians have at one time or another parti- 
cipated in the work of the hospital. It is a distinguished group. One may safely 
put at its head, for none names him but to praise. Dr. Jere D. Eggh'ston, for 
approaching forty years not only a dependable physician in Meriden, but very 
much in the city's life in every way. Dr. Edward T. Hradstreet, one of the dis- 
tinguished family of Thomaston Bradstreets, graduate of Yale and Columbia, 
has also for nearly four decades been an honored citizen of ^Meriden, whose work 
for the community has been even broader than the saving service of the physi- 
cian. He is a large participant in the work of Gaylord Farm, has since 1901 
been the town's medical examiner, and is in every way a thoroughly useful force 
in the life of the community. Dr. Edward AV. Smith and Dr. Elbridge W. Pierce 
are men of long practice and high standing in the town. Dr. Frederick P. 
Griswold, of Connecticut birth, JIayflower descent and eminence in his jirofes- 
sion, joined by marriage with one of the old families of Madison, is an honored 
member of a fine group. One of the younger men in ]\Ieriden and in his profes- 
sion is Dr. Harold A. Meeks, whom Connecticut owes to New Jersey, of an old 
Knickerbocker family, is making a great place for himself in tlie esteem of 
Meriden. And there is Dr. Joseph A. Cooke, born in New Haven, since 1899 
a resident of ^Meriden, who is rounding out a period of useful service in his 
pi'ofession in the position of chief magistrate of the city. 

Jleriden has one of the state's sanatoria for the treatment of tuberculosis. 
Formerly it wa.s a private sanatorium, known as Undercliffe, but under the super- 
vision of the commission it is merely the Connecticut State Sanatorium. Meriden 
has for some years, however, had an independent interest in the combat with tliis 
disease, and did some excellent work at Undercliffe, backetl by local supjiort, 
before the state took over the institution. 

Practicing at long distance in all but the minor coiu'ts. ilerideirs group of 
lawyers — there are about nineteen of them now — have won for themselves honor 
in the New Haven County Bar Association. Some of them are veterans like 
George A. Pay, long in practice in Meriden, state senator in 1871, for some years a 
partner at New Haven with Judge William L. Bennett, now of the Superior 
Court, whose work here ended a few years ago. Or Iiis brother. Prank S. Pay, 
who has been judge of the police and city courts and city attorney, and in various 
other ways honored in Meriden. James P. Piatt, who has achieved the diflieult 
task of making himself a high place on his own account despite the competition 
of a distingni.shed father, is no less an honored member of the Aleriden group 
since he was promoted to the Ignited States District Court. Albert R. Chamber- 
lain, rising in the law, is rising in the comnuniity as well, and bids fair to be as 
much a factor in the life of ]Meriden as was his father, (iovernor Chamlierlain. 

Patrick T. O'Brien, son of New Britain, trained under Judge Hennev of 



298 



A MODERN HISTORY OP NEW HAVEN 



Ilai'tford, has become recognized as one of the ablest of the attorneys of Meriden 
ill the recent period. Of him it has been said that "he is faithful to his clients, 
fair to his opponents and honest to tlie court." It is a good picture of him and 
of an ideal lawyer. Besides that he is prominent in the highest fraternal circles 
and a hard worker for his city's welfare. There are George L. King, who has 
been prosecuting agent for the county, and Henry T. King, able lawyer and park 
commissioner, both of them prominent in legal circles. Willnir F. Davis, for 
successive terms corporation counsel of Meriden, and prominent still as a counsel 
for some of the city's large corporations, is among ^I<?riden's ablest older law- 
yers. Judge John Q. Thayer, though his life work has closed, has been a promi- 
nent factor in the city's life in the present period, being probate .judge for 
almost two score years following 1893. 

Of those whose service political lias liecn at home Meriden has some dis- 
tinguished examples. Edgar J. Doolittle, for five terms mayor, a member of the 
state senate, since a bank director, always prominent in public work, has been 
one of the best older examples. Another was Benjamin Page, mayor in 1890 
and 1891. These are a few of a long list, including such mayors as Lines, 
Reilly, Danaher and Cooke. 

The amount of business done in Meriden requires a number of banks large 
in proportion to the city's size. Hence we are not surprised to find seven sub- 
stantial l)anking institutions — three national banks, two trust companies and 
two savings banks. The Meriden National Bank, chartered in 1833 and national- 
ized in 1855, has capital of ,'{(200,000 and its president is Herman Hess. The 
Home National has $400,000 capital and -I^ITS.OOO surplus. It was founded in 
1855 and nationalized in 1865. Edgar J. Doolittle is its president. The First 
National was chartered in 1863, and has capital of .i<200,000 and surplus of 
$300,000. Charles L. Rockwell is its president, as he also is of the .Meriden Trust 
& Safe Deposit Company, with a cajiital and surplus of $75,000, and of the City 
Savings Bank, which has deposits of $4,957,506. The Puritan Tnist Company, 
with a capital of $54,300, has C. E. Schunack for its president. The Meriden 
Savings Bank has been in existence since 1851, and has deposits of $8,542,474. 
Its president is Eugene A. Hall. 

Meriden has had the common experience with newspapers which have sprung 
up early like the grass, and withered and blown away, but some notably fit 
ones have survived. The older of these is the ^Morning Record, for it is the 
combination which was made in 1899 of the ^leriden Republican, founded in 
1860, and the Meriden Record. ^Yillialll A. Kelsey. the man behind the Kelsey 
printing press concern, has been a power in its publication, and Thomas H. 
"Warnock is at present its editor. The .Meriden .lonrnal. which with growing 
acceptance fills the ileriden evening field, was started in 1886, and the men who 
laid its corner stones were Francis Atwater, Lew Allen, Frank E. Sands and 
Thomas L. Reilly. The first has retired from active publication work, the sec- 
ond rests from his earthly labors, Thomas L. Reilly has chosen the glittering 
path of politics and Mr. Sands remains the gatherer of the harvest of his and 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 299 

their hard work. lie has proved in many ways that he is equal to the task of 
i-uiuiing a high elass publishing business and getting out a good newspaper. He 
is a thoroughbred publisher and editor, a historian of aceiiracy and information, 
and a citizen who believes in JMeriden and helps greatly to make the town worth 
while. 

The unfolding story of Jleriden has paid in the eloquent record of deeds the 
highest tribute that could be paid to some of the men who have made the town. 
They are only a few out of many. There lias been a notable company of them in 
the past three decades, men who have honored their fine old New England com- 
munity by exalting the qualities that uiake New England great in the capitals 
of their state and nation, as well as at home. The life and work of one of these 
men have centered in Meriden, though his duties have often carried him far 
afield. One could not name three of the men who have made Meriden in the 
last quarter-century and fairly leave him out. George H. Wilcox, son of the 
senior of the founders of the silver industry, son of ^Meriden, son of Yale, is 
nevertheless a man who has made himself. There is a romance, even if it is a 
romance of hard work, in his rise in a quarter of a century from office boy in 
his father's manufactory to president of the fifteen-million-dollar silver trust. 
He has done that — by keeping everlastingly at it. But there is a nobler romance 
in the way he ha.s served his town. Wilcox, Hubbard, ililler — it is a great tri- 
umvirate. But with it must needs be ranked a dozen if not a score more of those 
who. biding at home, have made the towni. 

Meriden, wreathing his tomb, cordiall.y gives first honors of statesmanship 
to her ''grand old man" at Washington, Senator Orville 11. Piatt. His work and 
his rank make a tale familiar but never old. He was one of the best examples in 
the closing days of the last century at Washington of the men who by character 
make a small state great in the national gathering. 

It is not through Senator Piatt alone that Meriden ha.s been represented at 
Washington. There is cordial appreciation from all for the man who rose from 
humble newspaper ranks to represent this district in the lower house and made 
a clean record there. Thomas L. Roilly. trusted citizen of Jleriden, as his fellows 
proved by electing him mayor, made good, as ever, in the greater task. 

And Jleriden has had a governor in this period. It was as a foremost citizen 
of his town, where he stood at the head of one of its sound banks, that Abiram 
Chamberlain went to the governor's chair at Hartford. He won and held the 
honor of the state as well as he had held that of his own town, and cainc hack to 
still gi-eater honors. His work is done, but his inspiration lasts. 

There is a w-oman of national fame who has carried Meriden with her to the 
temple. Ella Wlieeler Wilcox, though not ^leriden liorn, was so long associated 
with the community that it shares in her fame. It is not ashamed of the part- 
nership, for she has written down many W'ords that have the germ of immortality. 

One citizen with a service of a different sort has earned tlie highest gratitude. 
George ]\Iunson Curtis, son of the George R. Curtis whose memorial the public 
library is. with the best of old Connecticut blood in his veins and true apprecia- 



300 A MODEKN HISTORY OV NEW HAVEN 

tion of tnulition and record, lias earned unending g:i-atitude by his services as 
Meriden's historian. His "Century of Meriden" is one of the most faithful and 
painstaking records which a citizen ever preserved for his loved city, and to it 
the writer of this imperfect sketch of Meriden today cheerfully acknowledges 
great indebtedness. 

Greatest of all the sons who have served ^leriden are some, perhaps, whose 
story is yet to he told, who, on the far fields of battle for democracy, are offer- 
ing their lives, as have sons of Meriden in all our wars, for the cause of the 
right and true. The daily growing record of them cannot be set down here, nor 
of the many others, men and wduicn, who arc serving the war cause in number- 
less ways. They arc the evolution of the militan- comjjanies which grew up 
with Jleriden in its progi-ess. Companies I and L of the Second Regiment. They 
had in their ranks some of the be.st of ileriden's young men. They went with 
the Second Regiment to Nogales. They entered the maelstrom of war with the 
rest in 1917. Later that year they vanished into the mist of the west-Euroi)eau 
front, Company L commanded by a Meriden man. Captain Frank H. ]VIeGar, 
and with two Meriden lieutenants, Samuel A. Tyler and Henry A. Riecke. Com- 
pany I went out under Captain "William H. Whitney of Kensington, but two of 
its lieutenants were from ^leriden. John R. Feazel and Herman St. J. Holdt. 



CHAPTER XXX 
MERIDEN (Concluded) 

IXTERESTING GROWTH AND PRESENT MANUFACTURING GREATNESS OP THE "SILVER 
CITY," A CHARACTERISTIC YANKEE MANUFACTURING TOWN 

It would be difficult to find in the state of Connecticut a town so small or re- 
mote that it lacked, even from its earliest years, a trace of the practical working 
out of Yankee ingenuity. Meriden was no exception. Sodom Brook and Harbor 
Brook turned their water wheels in the early days, no doubt. As far back as the 
time when ^leriden got its practical independence as a separate parish there was 
some activity of this sort, though it has for the most part escaped the record. 
It was well toward the end of the eighteenth century that Samuel Yale coin- 
nienced to make cut nails. ])artly by machine and partly by hand, each being 
separately headed by dint of heat and hammer. It seems to have been as an out- 
growth of this that there wa.s a small factory in 1794 for the making of pewter 
buttons, and afterward for the production of other small articles of metal. 

These were but straws to indicate the direction of the Meriden inclination, 
prophecies of what was to be. We have had conclusive modern demonstration 
that a manufacturing community is not made without either water or railroad 
communication, and Meriden in those days had neither. The great canal that 
was to make some part of Connecticut's fortune passed it five miles to the west- 
ward. The railroad did not come until 1840. Then Meriden manufacturing, 
whose substantial foundations were already laid, took a remarkable spurt. It 
must have been as early as 1820 that Meriden 's manufacturing career really 
commenced. A considerable ciuantit}- of goods was produced, and toted by 
wagon to New Haven, or possibly to the canal, to be carried to market by water. 
Despite handicaps, the manufacturing of IMeriden must have had a substantial 
start by the time the railroad came, for hardly in less than ten years should a 
town of 2,500 people have developed the thirty-five manufacturing establish- 
ments and secured the 590 workers which the town had in 1849. 

Looking back now, that seems a small beginning. The census of 1910 — and 
the city and towni have hardly stood still since that time — reported that the year 
liefore there were 120 manufactories in Meriden, with a total of 7,845 employes. 
These were backed by a capital of $17,645,000. paid annual wages and salaries of 
$5,429,000, and produced goods valued at .$16,317,000. These are the last official 
figures available, but on the basis of the increase in the previous decade, it would 

301 



302 A MODERN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN 

be conservative to place the present number of Meriden's factor.y workers at 
9,000 and its value of manufactured product at exceeding $20,000,000 a year. 
This showing, it must be remembered, is for a town of not over 35,000 people. 
And though ^Merideu participates in some measure in the manufacturing intensity 
which the demand for war materials has created, it does so less in proportion to 
its size than most larger cities. 

Outside of iMcriden, the popular impression is that little but silverware, or 
••white metal" goods, is made there, ileriden does not especially object to the 
nirknaiiie '•Silver City." It earned it. It inherited the silver business. So it 
came about that in the era of great combinations of trade (or in restraint of trade, 
as j'ou please) which the turn of the century knew, it was in ]\Ieriden that the 
International Silver Company found it desirable to establish its headquarters, 
and in and near :\Ieriden that it found the majority of its important branches. 
It was not really silverware, but •'Britannia," that made Meriden famous. There 
was no trace of silver in the original Britannia metal, whose manufacture Asha- 
bel Griswold started in the upper part of Meriden in 1804, hut it led, through 
the later invention of electro plating, to the development of modern j)lated ware 
as we know it. Out of the Griswold enterprise, really the original ^leriden manu- 
facturing venture of importance, grew a little less than half a century later the 
Meriden Britannia Company, which still fifty years later was merged in the 
International Silver Company. Over a century ago it was the town's most impor- 
tant industry. Today, employing between 3,000 and -t.OOO persons, it still leads. 

With that industry is inseparably connected the name of AVilcox, as indeed 
that name is associated with Meriden progress in many ways. Next to I. C. 
Lewis, who was president of the original metal industry when it was first incor- 
porated, were the brothers Horace C. and D. C. Wilcox, the former being secre- 
tary and treasurer. His son, George H. Wilcox, today the president of the Inter- 
national Silver Company, is the evidence that the control of the industry has 
never gone out of Meriden's hand. In fact, ileriden is and has been, by virtue 
of the mastery of this foremost citizen of the town, the center of the great silver 
manufacturing industry, the largest of its line in the world, with an invested 
capital of .$20,000,000, with fifteen factories in the United States and an interest 
in several more in other countries. 

Not all the silver shaped in ileriden is handli^d in this factory, however. 
There are nine other plants in the town. Five of them are branches of the Inter- 
national Silver Company, and most of them were in existence when the combina- 
tion was formed. Of these the oldest and most important is the already mcTi- 
tioned Meriden Britannia Company, now "Factory E," at 48 State Street. The 
next in age, and fir.st in importance as a maker of silver plate, went into the trust 
as William Rogers :\Ianufacturing Company, that being the name of a factory 
which was brought down from Hartford. The Meriden name was C. Rogers and 
Brothers, and its product was so famous that it is still sold under the Rogers 
name, though it is now Factor^' H of the combination. Then there is the Barbour 
Silver Company on Colony Street, Factory A. The Forbes Silver Company is 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 303 

a department of Factory E, and the "VVileox Silver Plate Company is Factory N. 
These make, with the factories in AValliogford, not only the head but three- 
fifths of the body of the great American silver trust. Two more of the constitu- 
ent companies are in Waterbury, only twelve miles away. This is what makes 
Meriden the "Silver City." 

Next to silver perhaps the factors which make ^leriden most widely famous 
are the "Miller lamp" and the "Parker gun." A great part of the world still 
uses the classic wick to feed its flame, and the lamps which run by oil outnumber 
far the jets of gas or the electric glows. The Edward Miller Company, which 
today makes the Miller lamp in one of Meriden 's largest factories, emijloyiug 
Jiearly a thousand people, traces its beginnings to 1844, when the business had 
its first modest start. Incorporated in 1866, the company flourishes by the mak- 
ing of lamps, lanterns and chandeliers of all sorts, as well as bra.ss kettles, tinners' 
hardware and allied articles. Edward Miller, eminent citizen of Meriden, is 
still the president of the concern. 

The manufacture of guns is but a part of the business of Parker Brothers, 
but their excellent firearm, as a sporting gun, is justly and widely known. Their 
jilant, while smaller in apparent size than some of the city's well known indus- 
tries, employs largely skilled mechanics, and has a standing important out of 
proportion to its size. 

There are other things with the Parker name which play an important part 
in the city's industry. For there is a Parker lamp that has its fame as well as 
the Miller, and there is a Parker clock. The former is made by the Charles 
Parker Company, of which Charles Parker is president, and the latter by the 
Parker Clock Company, which gets its name from the same Charles Parker, its 
founder. Its president is W. H. Lyon. 

]\Ieriden's light can never be hidden under a bushel. Another reason why i« 
rhe Bradley & Hubbard Manufacturing Company, another outgrowth of that 
group of veteran industries that were laying the foundations before the days of 
1he railroad. Its incorporation was in 18.52, as Bradley, Hatch & Companj'. 
There were the names of the men who later led it into its great prosperity, 
William L. and Nathaniel Bradley. Walter Hubbard, a name which stands for 
great and good deeds in ileriden, came into the firm later. The Bradley interests 
still predominate, and are represented by N. L. Bradley, the present head. This 
concern, second as an employer of citizens of Meriden, now with a capital stock 
of $950,000 and not far from 2,000 employes, makes a wide variety of lamps, gas 
and electric fixtures, and its product has a great fame. 

There is a different and more general line of silver manufacture which is 
represented in Meriden by four important concerns, who make silver plated nov- 
elties, jewelry of silver, granite and plated table ware. They are ^Manning, 
Bowman & Company, A. II. Jones & Company, Wilbui- B. HhII and the Frank 
Tilling Silver Company. 

The third product for which Meriden has an international rejiufafion is cut- 
lery. A generation ago, if the Coiniecticnt boy — as Connecticut boys always did 



304 A JIODERN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN 

looked at the heel of his jackkuife blade to see where it was made, the chances 

were about ten to one that he found the name of a Meriden concern. The Meri- 
den Cutlery Company has been making table and pocket cutlery at South .Meriden 
since 1855. Formerly its factorj- was run entirely by water power. It has one 
of the finest equipments for this line of work, and produces now, as it did half a 
centun- ago, goods whose name is their guarantee. The concern employs about 
300 people. H. A. Curtis is its president, and treasurer of its $400,000 cap- 
ital. The other cutlery concern, equally prominent, is the Miller Brothers Cut- 
lery Company, which for almost half a century — it was organized in 1870 — has 
been doing its share to make Meriden famous. Its line was general for many 
years. Its specialties today are steel ink erasers and steel pens. It also employs 
upward of 300 persons. Apparently it is now a Rockwell concern, for C. L. 
Rockwell is president and C. F. Rockwell treasurer and general manager. 

Once again, .Meriden is widely known through its product of musical instru- 
ments. In the days when music depended somewhat less on mechanical perform- 
ance, when the cabinet organ was found in every home that did not have a piano, 
"Wilcox & AVhitc," was a household name. W. H. White, the pioneer organ 
builder, was the mechanical man behind it, and the Wilcox was the even moi'e sub- 
stantial Horace C. Wilcox of the silver industry. Since 1877 it has made goods as 
stei-ling as their silver, the cabinet organ as long as it was demanded, then the 
"pneumatic symphony" or self playing organ, still later the "Angelus. " This is 
a playing attachment for any piano, now developed to a high degi'ee of accuracy 
and shading capability. It has a capital stock of $450,000, and employs upwards 
of 250 people. The Aeolian Company was organized in 1887, when the demand 
for mechanically pla.yed musical instruments began to be positively manifested. 
It makes player pianos of a high grade, and its capital stock of $2,000,000 may 
indicate something of its place of importance in the instrument making world. 
It emplo.vs about 500 people. The heads of the company are H. B. Tremaine, 
president, and Frederick L. Wood, superintendent of the construction of music 
rolls. 

Meriden has a large manufacture of electric fittings and appliances. Besides 
the Bradley & Ilulibard Company, whose line runs now largely to electric fixtures, 
there are the Connecticut Electric Equipment Company and the Connecticut 
Telephone and Equipment Company, with a quarter of a million capital, mak- 
ing telephones, telephone specialties and electric goods in general. The Handel 
Company, with a capital of $100,000, has since 1903 been making electric light 
fixtures. It employs about 150 persons. Henry B. Todd is a producer of X-ray 
machines and appliances. 

In the making of cut glass Meriden has seven concerns — all but one of the 
industries of this sort in the state. In addition to the International Silver 
Company, there is the J. D. Bergan Company, which James D. Bergan and oth- 
ers organized in 1891, erecting a four-story factory on Miller Street. This 
concern is one of the leadere in the manufacture. The other concerns are the 
Meriden Cut Glass Company of Pratt Street, now a branch of the International 




uiufu .■.:!"»i,. ""i7r,y^ 



I™ P^? ;^' ' ' '. 4l -ft,^ ,,;&: ^J I 






FA( TOKV OF Tin: W II.* i LX \ W 11111: (iKiJAX (O.Ml'AXV. Mi:Kll)i:X 




WJXTllKdr llOTKL. MKKJDKX 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 305 

Silver Company as Factory T, the Silver City Cut Glass Company of Hicks 
Street, Hall & Callahan of Webst^- Street, James J. Niland of ililler 
Street and C. F. Monroe Company of West Main Street, which has an 
important and unusual factory now employing over 200 people. With these 
are more or less allied four substantial jewelry-making concerns. Probably the 
leader of these is the E. A. Bliss Company, started in 1882 and incorporated in 
1890, which employs over 100 persons in the making of artistic jewelry of con- 
siderable variety. Armstrong Brothers have a good sized plant on Vine Street, 
and the others are the Amei'ican Jewelry Manufacturing Company on Pratt 
Street and C. G. Armstrong on South Vine. 

Thougli this is not reckoned a leader among the city's industries, Merideu 
has nine hardware making plants, the largest of which is Foster, Merriam & 
Company, dating back to 1866. This concern, now capitalized at .'t;240,000, 
employs nearly 500 people. It makes a general line of cabinet hardware, and 
has a wide reputation for first class product, ileriden is also a prominent pro- 
ducer of casket hardware, tlie leader of that at present being the International 
Casket Hardware Company, capitalized at siil00,000 and employing over 100 
men. The others are the Charles Parker Company, already mentioned, the Bird- 
sey & Raven Company on East ilain Street, the Browne & Dowd Company, 
general specialties, the M. B. Schenk Company, casters, and the F. J. Wallace 
Company on Britannia Street. This last concern is also prominent as a maker 
of saddlery. 

The variety of the others is almost endless, and among them are not a few 
concerns prominent either because of their long establishment or because of 
the conspicuous excellence of their product. Here is the Connecticut Shock 
Absorber Company, a concern founded as recently as 1911, making a standard 
automoliile fitting, with a capital of .$110,000. Ernest C. Wilcox is president. 
Griswold, Richmond & Glock Company is an old Meriden concern which makes 
cornices. The Lane Construction Company, John S. Lane & Son, cjuarrymen 
and the Lane Quarry Company, three allied concerns, employ together a con- 
siderable number of people, and form an important portion of Meriden 's indus- 
tries. The Lyon & Billard Company is an old concern supplying coal and build- 
ers' materials. The Meriden Iron & Brass Company, the Meriden ilachine Tool 
Company and the ^Meriden Press & Drop Company are a group of standard con- 
cerns contributing materially to the general prosperity. A younger firm than 
the makers of the Parker gun is tlie Jleriden Firearms Company, which keeps 
half a thousand employes busy in the making of standard giins and small arms. 
It was organized in 1905, by machinist.s from Hopkinton, Massachusetts, who 
took over the old plant of the JMeriden Malleable Iron Company, closed since 
1895. It is now controlled by Sears, Roebuck & Company of Chicago, and 
inakes goods worthy to be ranked with the more famoiis Parker gun. 

ileriden has long been marked as a center of the printing and publishing 
trade, and well advertised as a producer of printing presses. Aside from its 
newspaper plants, whi<-h have elsewhere been mentioned, it has the Curtiss-Way 



306 A MODEKN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN 

Company, a large concern which was established in 1902, and employs nearly 
150 persons in the production of calendars, calendar pads and similar special- 
ties. The Meriden Gravure Company, established since 1888, has a wide repu- 
tation for the production of high class photogravure and all types of modern 
reproduction and printing work. ^Meriden has one printing press manufactory, 
incorporated in 1905, but considerably older than that in its beginnings. The 
Kelsey Press Company, started in 1872, now capitalized at .$75,000, makes hand 
and small power presses in large quantities, and its product is widely and well 
known. William A. Kelsey is at its head. 

The list of industries in ^leriden could not more fittingly be rounded out 
than by mention of a firm whose work stands in almost every town of Connecti- 
cut, and in many towns beyond, in every ease a truly living monument to the 
ability, industry and genius of a man whom Meriden can never honor too gen- 
erously. H. Wales Lines is not a native of Meriden, but the finest of the blood 
of old Connecticut stock is in his veins, and he did not immigrate from farther 
away than Naugatuck. ^Moreover, he came to Meriden when he was only twenty- 
six, and he has stood by the town ever since. What he has been to Meriden in 
the over half a century since is written in the political, the civic, the financial, 
the industrial and the constructive history of the town. When he came, a rap- 
idly developing manufacturing community was just expanding to the status 
of a city. It had the virile, aggressive, progressive swing which strongly 
appealed to his positive spirit. He threw himself with all his vigor into its life. 
He has been a part of it ever since — is still, despite the slowing weight of four 
score years. In a very broad sense he has been a constructor. He was a mason 
at the start, and the works of brick and stone which he and his firm ha\e budded 
stand in almost every city and many of the towns of the stat« he loves, and in 
cities of at least four other states, while Meriden shows in numerous examples 
of its best public and private architecture his industry and skill. These stand, 
and such is the character of their construction that for ages they will stand, 
memorials to a very remarkable man. 

The finest of Revolutionary American ancestry was Mr. Lines 's heritage, and 
in his busy life he has found time to pay large tribute to the traditions of New 
England and the nation. He is a member of many patriotic societies, and his 
spirit of brotherhood is evidenced in his fraternity and club affiliations, which 
are numerous. He is a thirty-third degree Mason. How he has been for three 
terms mayor of Meriden, how he was member of the Legislature, delegate to 
the Constitutional Convention of 1902 and candidate for Congress, how he has 
been a leader in many a work for the betterment of Meriden and his state — 
these and many other features of his abundant career are written on more 
enduring pages than those of any history. 

The firm which Mr. Lines has founded is today an institution in Meriden, 
as potent for the establishment of the town in American honor as the varied 
products which Jleriden sends over the world. It was Perkins & Lines when it 
was founded in 1864, and in 1878 the H. Wales Lines Company was formed. 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 307 

being incorporated ten years later. Henry E. Fairchild, whom Mr. Lines 
associated witli him in 1878, remains as a prominent member, now vice presi- 
dent. Outside of its numerous structures in Meriden, one of the best examples 
of the firm's work is the remarkable gi'oup in Naugatuck for which the late J. H. 
Whittemore was responsible. It must always be the pride of this firm that it 
had a large hand in the building of what, shaped by world-famous architects, 
competent judges have declared one of the finest groups of buildings in America. 
Their like as to construction is all over Connecticut, on the campuses of Yale 
and Princeton Universities, at Philadelphia, in New York City, at Mount Her- 
mon, Massachusetts. The Lines Conipanj''s most widely known building work, 
possibly, was a model of fine old colonial architecture constructed as the Con- 
necticut Building at the St. Louis Exposition in 1904, into which ^h\ Lines must 
have builded the best of his finely appreciative soul. 



CHAPTER XXXI 
ORANGE 

KVOI.ITION OP THE COLONIAL PARISH OP NORTH MILPORD INTO THE TOWN OF ORANGE, 
AND THE CHARACTER OF A RARE FARMING COMMI'NITV 

There probtilily is not in all Couneetieut a town of stranger contrasts than 
is Orange as it stands today. The well-steered crow, tlyiug between Connecti- 
cut's two largest cites, would pass, as he left New Haven, first over an urban 
district scarcely distinguishalile in nature from the Elm City itself. Then he 
would sight a modern amusement resort not rivalled in size or money-catching 
vanities this side of Coney Island. Then he would pass over some of the most 
delightful rolling farm district of the state, with widely scattered houses and 
winding roads. Then he would cross, just after leaving Orange, the state's 
noblest river next to the Connecticut, lying amid scenery which even that pic- 
turesque valley can hardly rival. 

The town stretches from West River and the harlior due west to the Ilousa- 
tonic. For the most part its surface is gently undulating country. There is a 
point in the northwest corner locally known as Grassy Hill, and a longer range 
south of it, running over into "Milford, down on the maps as "George's Cellar 
Hill." Wepawaug River, once a stream esteemed for its water power, flow.s 
down from the Woodbridge hills, and Race brook comes to .ioin it from the same 
direction. Indian River and Oyster River, streams that nobody outside of New 
England would deign to call moi'c than creeks, start in Orange. At the north 
arc the ilaltby lakes. The Wepawaug, along with these, now finds its greatest 
utility in serving West Haven with water. And on the western side, a part of 
the town viewed comparatively little, it .seems, by man, there is the Housatonic, 
a stream in wliii-h any town might rejoice. From West River to the Housatonic 
is no more than eight miles. From tiie Woodliridge line to Oyster River Point 
it is about six. 

Nature has done much for Orange; man has tried to do more. Three rail- 
road lines cross its territory. The main line to New York, now taking the width 
of four tracks, was the first. This did little for Orange except to afford it a 
station at West Haven, where once on a time the trains used to stop. Then the 
Derby line meandered across in a wavy curve, taking in the stations of Ailing- 
town or West Haven, Tyler City and Orange Center. And the Naugatuek line 
slides down from Derby, hugging the east shore of the river, managing to avoid 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 309 

making any stop in Orange. Last of all came the trolley, skirting the northern 
edge of the town, mostly using it as a convenient course to get from Derby to 
New Haven. 

There was a "North Milford" within a score of years after New Haven was 
founded. There was a "West Haven" as soon as the settlers of Quinnipiac 
began to overflow to the westward. But there was no Orange until 1822. Tn 
that year tlie town was incorporated, and in some tardy sense of gratitude to 
William, Prince of Orange, for his generosity to Connecticut in the matter of 
a charter, it was named after him. The settlers could hardly have felt any 
such gratitude to a certain Englishman who came later than William of Orange, 
one General Garth, though there seems good reason to believe that he put 
Orange on the map, as it were. Anyway, he discovered Savin Rock, for he 
landed there on .July 5, 1779, proceeding thence to New Haven without any more 
delay than was caused him by the "Defenders" at the AUingtown gates. One 
who enters New Haven by that route now has startling reminder of that event, 
in the militant Defenders' Monument. 

Up to the time of its incorporation as a town, the center of Orange, as we 
now know it, had continued to be called North Milford, as it was, indeed, in 
origin. That section had been surveyed in 1687, but was settled somewhat later 
than 1700. There are a few scattering names of pioneers. One of them was 
Richard Bryan, who gave the name of Bryan's Farms to a certain locality. 
There was Jonathan Rogers, with his sons Jonathan T. and Jonah. There were 
Benjamin Clark and his sons ; also Jonathan Treat, ilatthew Woodruff came 
later, and there are his prominent descendants. Still later was S. T. Oviatt, 
who kept the store, and when the railroad came was its first station agent, com- 
bining that with the office of po.stmaster. 

In the outcome of settlement, we have the widely divided Orange of today. 
The effort to make the part called Orange the main part has never been a suc- 
cess. The center of population was West Haven at the first; it is more than 
ever so now. The center of town government is at West Haven. Orange, as the 
place of the railroad station and postofSce of that name, is only a minor part 
of the town. But for purposes of historical precedence, and for even better 
reasons, we may consider Orange first in the order. 

Orange — or North ^Milford, as it was — had scattered farms from near the 
beginning of the eighteenth century. It had become quite a village, we may 
suppose, by the beginning of the next. It ha.s grown with becoming deliberation 
ever since. Now and then a city resident sees a place that takes his eye, and 
buys to build. Now and then an old resident, who had wandered to the city, 
comes back. Its whole eastern part, especially its upper shore front, is taken 
up by growing West Haven and ingi'owing Savin Rock. AUingtown, an over- 
flow of New Haven, gradually works westward. But there is wide room for this 
western movement, and the major portion of the territory of Orange is yet the 
unspoiled country — broad acres, favorable for the farmer. 

Time was when somebody had a drenni (if building a metropolis, or some- 



310 A MODERN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN 

thing of the sort, in the very heart of the town. It was in 1887 that- the factory 
of the Peerless Buttonhole Attacluneut Company was established in what is 
known as Tyler City. A railroad station was soon after built, whose traces 
still remain as a flag station. A large school building was erected. Surely here 
were the "makin's" of a city. It was a short-lived dream. Within eight years 
the factory had vanished, and the school building was used as a county home. 
The rare trains on the New Haven-Derby line still stop, on request, at the old 
station. Otherwise, Tyler City might be forgotten. 

Earlier than that, Orange had a mining boom. There is hardly a town in 
Connecticut which does not show sufficient traces of some supposedly precious 
stone or mineral to create an excitement, if properly exploited. In Orange it 
was, supposedly, silver and copper. A New York company developed a copper 
mine in the western part of the town. There was a nine days' furore, but the 
copper turned out as all other copper mined in Connecticut has done. It was 
real, but it was in microscopic quantities and was mined at extravagant cost. 

Some years ago there was some desultory attempt to utilize the Wepawaug, 
the enterprising creek that tlows through the center of the town, for manufactur- 
ing purposes. At one time the AUings had a woolen mill somewhere up the 
stream. But long ago that was given up, and the Wepawaug is mainly utilized 
as a feeder for city water supply. At AUingtown, in a new factory built within 
the past three years, the American Mills Company, which owns what was the 
New Haven Web Factory at Centerville, has a branch textile mill. Aside from 
that, the Orange manufacturing district is now confined to West Haven, which 
has a number of important industries. 

The one "country church" of Orange, the Congregational, dates back to the 
North Milford days of 1791, thirty years before the incorporation of the town. 
As Bryan's Farms the center seems to have been best known when the people 
made the first beginnings of a church there. They had become tired of driving 
five miles to clnu'ch in ililford, and moreover, they wanted to start their own 
community. So they built in 1791, on the "public gi'cen," w^e are told, the 
plain thirty by thirty-six biiilding that formed their fii'st church. Their number 
was small, and they seem not to have dared assume the burden of supporting 
their own pastor. These fledglings must have been tenderly regarded by the 
mother church, for its pastor, the Rev. Bezaleel Pinneo, was good enough to 
come up once in two weeks and preach to them. How long this arrangement 
continued is not clear, but apparently the church had no pastor of its own until 
1805, wlien it settled the Rev. Erastus Scranton, a native of East Guilford. He 
remained for twenty-two years. The records date the organization of the church 
from 1804. 

The church saw prosperity under ^Ir. Seranton, and such growth that the 
primitive first building was soon outgrown. For as earlj- as 1810 it was replaced 
by the present typical New England church edifice, which excellently .serves its 
purpose, though the congregation often, in these davs of modern church houses. 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 311 

feels the need of ampler facilities for doing neighborhood and community social 
service. 

Of the pastors who have served this church in the recent period some of the 
best remembered are Rev. H. W. Hunt, who was pastor from 1884: to 1896, and 
Rev. B. M. Wright, from 1896 to 1907. Since 1908 the pastor has been 
Rev. Newell il. Calhoun, D. D., a leader and teacher of distinguished ability, 
and a member of the Yale corporation. Under his guidance the church shows 
good health in all its departments, and is serving the community as well as it 
has done in all its history. 

As ever since the early days. Orange preserves its distinct existence apart 
from the life on its eastern and southeastern ]>orders. Though less than five 
miles from a large and busy city, though it has what amounts to a city within 
its town limits, Orange is still the unspoiled countiy town. It is governed from 
West Haven — but West Haven pays the bills. It also furnishes much of the 
business for Orange. Orange has its own life, and with it is well content. It 
has its own sterling citizens, some of whom rank high in the honor and work 
of the state. They do not deserve, and doubtless never did, the unenlightened 
stricture of the East Guilford father of the Rev. Erastus Scranton, who is said 
to have flippantly remarked that "'Erastus is preaching the gospel to the ever- 
lasting heathen of North ]\Iilford. " 

The name of Woodruff, for almost two centuries associated with Orange, has 
more than ever a leading place there. In the very center of the village is the 
seed growing farm of S. D. Woodruif & Sons, employing a large force of men, 
and producing reliable farm and garden seeds and supplies. The head of that 
firm is the Hon. Watson S. Woodruff, who has run the gamut of the local offices, 
been state senator and still occupies a prominent position in polities. Robert 
J. Woodruff, attorney, has liis office in New Haven, where he has been prosecutor 
in the court of common pleas, but he has always lived in Orange, where he has 
a fine residence, and an interest in the seed firm. 

One of the institutions of the Orange of today is the model dairy farm of 
Wilson H. Lee — Fairlea Farm. Some dozen years ago Jlr. Lee, with foresight 
of the part the farm was to have in the public appreciation and service of this 
time, purchased a farm in the heart of Orange. There he established a plant 
for the producing of milk on scientific j)riiipipl^s, with the application of the 
same exact business methods which he uses for the making of a perfect city 
directory, or any product of the printer's art. He has demonstrated, more con- 
clusively, perhaps than any man in Connecticut that farmi:ig, at least as far as 
the producing of milk goes, can be made an exact science. He not only raises 
milk of an extremely high quality, but he raises it in an excellent way — and he 
makes the process pay. Tributes to his success are the demand for and the 
price paid for his product, and the fact that his dairy is recognized as one of 
the finest in America. ^Moreover, experts come even from other countries to 
study his system and methods, some of which were distinctly original with Mr. 
Lee. He has succeeded as well with other branches of farming than the raising 



312 A MODERN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN 

of milk. In short, with Fairlea Farm he is performiug a wouderful service for 
the agriculture of the state, a service which he supplements by his work through 
the state board of agi-iculture and the farm bureaus of this and other states, 
whose work he has had gi-eat influence in promoting. As for Orange, he has 
done more to "put it ou the map" as a town of fine fanning possibilities than 
any farmer it has ever had. 

^lany others, seed of the sterling old North Milford stock, make the Orange 
of today. Names like Clark and Russell and Treat, Andrew and Baldwin and 
Stone, are still conspicuous in the town. :\Iingled with them are patronymics 
like Pucilio and Farino and Cuzzocreo, Ceretto and Linquist and Logidice. The 
farmers taught in the Old World are competing with those taught in the New. 
The social order of the old town changes accordingly, becoming thereby more 
truly democratic. 

Orange, though West Haven spreads from the entrance of West River to the 
harbor down to the point of Savin Rock, is not without seacoa.st. Between Savin 
Rock and the beginning of Woodmont there are over two miles of shore front, 
today well occupied by the summer dwellings of those who seek the sea, with now 
and then a residence of one whose love for the sea is not wholly a summer fancy. 
Oyster River Point, Merwin's Beach and Burwell's Beach are communities with 
which the Orange we have been obser\'ing has little in common, to be sure, but 
they are, in their way, important parts of that town. 

In the far western part of the town, along the Housatonic River, is a .section 
which has possibilities undeveloped. Rough and in large measure unsettled, an 
area of hills and rocks and woodland, it is the most picturesque part of Orange. 
Lovers of nature have found it in the pa.st, and wall continue to find it in the 
future. The lower Housatonic, approached more commonly from the Hunting- 
ton side, is a river second to none in the state and ranking w-ith the best in New 
England for beauty and commercial value. Some day when state or federal 
authority redeems our water courses from the pollution which destroys their 
value and poisons those whom they serve, Orange will have no small part in the 
redemption and no small pai-t of the interest. 



CHAPTER XXXII 
WEST HAVEN 

THE SEPARATE COMMUNITY ON THE NEW HAVEN SIDE OP ORANGE WHICH HAS GROWN 

INTO A NEAR-CITY ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE AMUSEMENT RESORT, 

SAVIN ROCK 

I 

Geographical convenience, the accident of West River, made West Haven a 
jjart of the Town of Orange instead of the Town of New Haven. It was from 
early times more naturally identified with New Haven than with any community 
to the westward. It is hardly four miles from New Haven Green to the green 
in West Haven, and it was easy and natural that thei-e should he an overflow 
from the city in that direction. Moreover, we have good evidence that the eaili- 
est settlers on the west hank of West River came from the direction of the 
larger community. 

But one is prone to forget that the bridges of today did not exist in 1695, 
or even a century later. The settlers found their way across, for at low tide 
West River is fordable even well toward its mouth. But going back and forth 
was not so simple a matter. So it was inevitable that the pioneers should from 
the start shape themselves into a separate community. They were farmers at 
the beginning, and what became West Haven was early "West Farms." It was 
that till almost 1800. Shortly later the name of West Haven liegan to be used, 
and has held. 

For up to that time, it seems, there was little serious thought of including 
West Haven in the town of Orange. Rocks and hills divided North Milford 
from West Farms, and the people saw little of each other. If the citizen of 
either village in 1800 had been asked to prophesy as to town organization, he 
would most likely have said that there was destined to be a town of North Mil- 
ford and another town of West Haven. But the two communities together, it 
will be noticed, contained only about 1,200 people when Orange was incorporated 
in 1822. Of these the large majority, no doubt, were in West Haven. Orange 
needed West Haven, and the natural boundary of the West River prevailed. So 
the present geographical arrangement fame about. But Wi-st Haven kept right 
on growing by itself as if nothing had happened. 

The year 1695 is .set for the first begiiniings of independent settlement at 
West Farms. Such names as George Lambeiton, Thr)mas Stephens, Thomas 

.■n;{ 



314 A MODERN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN 

Painter, the Benhains, the Wards and tlie Chirks appear among the pioneers. 
The marks of their biulding are plain to he seen yet around the center of West 
Haven for with their usual accurate sense of the most favorable location, they 
settled around what is now the green. 

The framework of that early community history is the history of the churches. 
In the parish days, before West Haven became a part of a separate town, the 
church had by law a positive authority of government. It was the community 
center and received more proportionate attention than now. And as usual, it 
was in this case the Congregational Church that led the way. The settlers had 
not been by themselves in West Farms more than two score years before they 
felt able to form their own church. Their feeling coixld not have been unjusti- 
fied, for whereas other parishes of the sort found themselves unable to support 
their own pastor for several years after church organization, AVest Farms seems 
to have done so from the start. The church was formed in 1715. and the first 
pastor, Rev. Samuel Johnson, came at once. In fact, the church was able to 
erect its own building as early as 1719. 

It was not, like some of its contemporaries, a church of long pastorates in 
its early days. Between the close of IMr. Johnson's pastorate and 1870, a period 
of some 140 years, nine pastors served this church. Then came the pastorate of 
Rev. George Sherwood Dickerman, native of ilount Carmel, which continued 
from 1870 to 1873. After him was Rev. Norman J. Squires, with a pastorate as 
unusually long as the pastor was himself notable, from 1881 to 1914. Rev. Albert 
R. Brown came that year, and remained until the spring of 1918. He went to 
Y. M. C. A. service on the war front, his departure being on leave of absence 
fi'om the church. 

As pastors came one after another, so did buildings for the cluuvli. The 
first was erected in 1719, and must have seemed, by the time it was replaced in 
1852, pretty ancient and primitive. In 1859 this was burned, and was replaced 
in the following year bj- the present example of the New England church archi- 
tecture of the time. It serves the congregation's purpcses well, especially since 
the completion of its ample and unusual parish house in 1916. This edifice, 
ad.ioining the church, was built at a cost of $35,000, and is one of the best 
appointed and equipped church auxiliary buildings in the New Haven district. 
Beginning beneath the main floor, there are commodious dining rooms and a 
modern kitchen. On the main floor there is a large audience i-oom. with gallery 
divided for class rooms. And on the upper floor there is a gymnasium to delight 
the heart of all who have faith in physical exercise as an aid to religion true 
and undefiled. 

Christ Church, said to be the oldest Episcopal church in the state, now occu- 
pies a stone edifice, of architecture dignified and attractive, which also stands 
in the center of West Haven, an outward adornment to the community as the 
service for which it stands is an inward adornment. Its foundation dates offi- 
cially from 1740, but it is said to have been as early as 1722 that Rev. Samuel 
Johnson, the first pastor of the neighbor Congregational Church, became con- 




ST. LAWRENCE KOitAJS ( ATHULIC UIlUKtll, W KST UA\ KX 




MASONIC BUILDING, WEST HAVEN 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 315 

viiieed tliat no man L-ould be saved by Congregationalism alone. He proceeded 
to work out his faith in West Haven. How early the first building was erected 
is not clear, but there was surely a frame meeting house — though it was not 
permitted to call it that — by 1740. As to rectors, in the period between Mr. 
Johnson's work and the coming of the Rev. Edwin S. Lines in 187-4 there were 
no less than twenty-eight diiferent rectorates. Mr. Liues was with the church 
but five years, going on to New Haven in 1879. In 1886 Rev. Hobart B. Whit- 
ney was rector, and since 1909 Rev. Floyd S. Kenyon has been in charge of the 
growing work. Christ Church also has just completed a model parish house. 

The West Haven Methodist Church dates only from 1870, being organized 
with Rev. C. W. Lyon as pastor. It has done a useful, aggressive work and pros- 
pered from the first, growing with the rapid growth of West Haven. In 1916, 
under the leadership of Rev. William Redhcft'er, it completed a new building 
on Second Avenue, which is a substantial addition to the church equipment and 
public architecture of West Haven. The present pastor is Rev. Charles E. Barto. 

St. Lawrence is the Roman Catholic church of We.st Haven, and is now 
ministering to large congregations, with a fine building and good equipment. 
West Haven continued to be, as to Catholicism, a part of the Milford parisji up 
to 1876, when St. Lawrence was established. It has had a succession of able 
leaders. Rev. James McGetrick came to the church in 1909, and was with it for 
six years. Rev. John Fleming served for a year, being followed in 1916 by the 
present pastor, Rev. Francis M. ;\1 array. 

Its nearness to New Haven makes West Haven the more independent in some 
wa.vs, and one of them is in respect to schools. It has an excellent school sys- 
tem, directed by Superintendent Edgar C. Stiles, who has demonstrated him- 
self a superior educator and director. The central borough district has a com- 
plete graded system, with a principal. Miss Clara Sutherland, and fifty-six 
teachers. Outside of West Haven, Orange has the North School district, with 
an equipment of seventeen teachers, and the school in the County Home at 
Allingtown, where four teachers care for the children. 

West Haven was incorporated as a boi-ough in 1837, only fifteen years after 
the establishment of Orange as a town. Tliis early incorporation in part explains 
the independence of the borough of the town of which it is supposed to he a 
part. The rest of the explanation is in its size, which has steadily and rapidly 
grown in proportion to the size of Orange. Today West Haven has at least 
13.200 of the 15,000 people of the town. This is almost three times the size of 
the borough in 1900. The rapid growth, the considerable size of West Haven, 
and espeeiall.v certain peculiar problems which require a strong government, 
have for some years past impelled some of the citizens of the borough to consider 
its incorporation as a city. There was a faction, more in evidence formerly than 
now, which believed the simplest solution would be consolidation with New 
Haven. But those who took that view never approached a ma.jority. The inde- 
pendent spirit of West Haven invariably prevailed, and will prevail. Some 
day, jirobably, tliere will be a City of Orange, ^leanwhile. there is a positive. 



:jl6 A MODERN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN 

increasingly self confident, well governed borough of West Haven. Its people 
live, many of them, in New Haven for business purposes through the day, but 
tliey are loyal to the place of their homes. The borough has its well equipped 
fire department of five companies, its competent police system, and is gradually 
getting what it has long needed, a sewer system. 

West Haven's industry started when the community was young, and grew 
up with it. As early as 1853 the West Haven Buckle Company was a promising 
concern, and has continued up to this time, now employing fifty people, and 
capitalized at $17,000. In 1876 the Parmelee Piano Company, of which the late 
Henry F. Parmelee became the head, built a factory on lower Campbell Avenue. 
Later, under a partly changed ownership, it became the Mathushck Piann Com- 
pany, aiul put out an instrument that won a wide and favorable reputation. A 
dozen years ago the business was discontinued, and the factory, with the excep- 
tion of a brief use for automobile manufacturing, remained vacant until S. R. 
Avis & Sons took it over in 1914 for the manufacture of gun barrels. They 
now liave $100 000 capital, and employ over 300 people. George R. Kelsey 
formed the American Buckle & Cartridge Company in 1883, and Israel A. 
Kelsey was its president and treasurer in 1890. 

New Haven makes a somewliat unsuccessful effort to claim the Hall Organ 
Company, which has a wide reputation as a maker of church organs, but as a 
matter of fact its factory is in West Haven. Other strictly West Haven indus- 
tries are the Alderhurst Iron Works and the Yale Iron & Stair Company, orna- 
mental and structural iron work ; the Sanderson Fertilizer & Chemical Company 
and the Connecticut Fat Rendering and Fertilizer Company, fertilizers; Walter 
R. Clinton, gasoline engines; the Cameron Manufacturing Company, automo- 
bile parts; the West Haven j\Ianufacturing Company, hack saws and frames; 
the Western Electric Company, telephone supplies; the Wire Novelty ^Maiui- 
facturing Company, wire novelties; John Wilkinson, confectioner}'. 

West Haven has one financial institution, the Orange Bank & Trust Com- 
pany, with a savings department. It is capitalized at $25,000, and has savings 
deposits of $326,929. Its president is Watson S. Woodruff. 

II 

Many years ago there was, at the point where the broadening mouth of New 
Haven harbor curves inward to make a shallow bay to tlie east of Oyster River 
and Bradley Point, a lonely rock, or group of rocks. In those days of its first 
discovery it was wholly or partly covered by a growth of living green. The 
newcomers from the Old World immediately saw that the juniper shrub which 
made the rock evergreen was like to what they had known in old England as 
"savin" — the Sabine herb of the ancient Latins, as indeed it is allied to it in 
family. How early this was called Savin Rock one cannot say, but the liistories 
tell us that General Garth and his red coated invaders' landed at Savin Rock in 
1779. Probably the rocky cliff had a more than incidental interest to the early 




SA\'1X RUCK. NEW IIAVEX 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 317 

settlei-s of West Farms. It was their lookout to sea. There the "breaking 
waves dashed high" in winter or in storm. Savin Rock wa.s a landmark. 

But it seems to have be^n from New Haven that Savin Rock really was dis- 
covered. To confess the truth. New Haven had and has rather poor picking of 
sliore front close at home. The harbor front has been a muddy, shifting thing 
rather than a bathing beach, and for some decades past the discharge of sewage 
has made it woi-se. The seeker of inviting seashore had to go well down toward 
the mouth of the harbor. And somehow the west sliore was the first to be dis- 
covered. Traveling down that shore, the first point that seemed to have anything 
to satisfy was the old juniper-covered rock. 

So it came about, gradually at first, then with a ru.sh, that Savin Rock was 
New Haven's amusement resort. As early as 1867 the street railway reached 
West Haven center from the city, and a few yeai-s later the demand of pleasure 
seekers had extended it to "the Rock." For tliirty years more the summer 
travel to that shore grew steadily, but slowly, Merry-go-romids came to the aid 
of nature. The peanut man came to hear what the wild waves were saying, 
and to make a penny by his wares. Other aids to amusement of the primitive 
type appeared. Bathing facilities were developed, though to make bathing 
attractive on almost any of the beaches near Savin Rock nature ne^ds a great 
deal of assistance. Savin Rock became popular, and people sought its breezes 
increasingly as relief from summer heat as the size of the city grew. 

Looking back now, it seems that this era of development ought to be disre- 
garded. For the real making of what is now known as Savin Rock came with a 
rush soon after 1900. The slow growing amusement resort had located itself, 
not precisely at the Rock. Init on the flat a little to the ea.st of it, wliere the sea- 
ward view leaps over mud flats which seem at low tide to make walking all the 
way to Long Island feasible. But it wasn't with the seaward view that the exploit- 
ers of Savin Rock especially concerned themselves. They worked on the theory 
that the average plea.sure seeker would find a lot more fun in spending his 
money to ride on flying horses, in shattering his nerves on a "dip of death" or 
a "'shoot the chutes" than in listening to the less expen.sive voice of the mur- 
muring sea. It wasn't all theory, either, for these promoters had received their 
education at Coney Island or Far Roc'kawa.v. They would make Savin Rock a 
Connecticut Coney Island, and gather many shekels. 

They have done it. That was the time when the "White City" sprung up 
in a night, as it were, with its wonderful electric tower and its crystal mazes 
and its chutes and its numberless side shows and, presently, its moving picture 
theaters. Space within its gates was only for the elect of the concessionaires — 
those who would pay high. And it was at fir.st expected that the people would 
also pay high .just for entering its charmed portals — and give up all the rest 
they had except their carfare after they got in. But the scheme didn't work to 
perfection. For there were enterprising amusement promoters who found it 
cheaper to get space in the grove and on the streets outside the charmed city, 
and there they put up flying horses and Ferris wheels and Old Mills and soda 



318 A MODERN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN 

and pop-coru aud peanut stands. Then there were started daily band concerts 
in the park ontside the White City. And a good share of the public was content 
to stay outside. So the gates of the White City were made toll free, and the 
people go in and out as they will, and spend or not, as they please. But most 
of them please to speiul somewhere. Savin Rock is the ilecca — the term is not 
used loosely or merely figuratively — for summer multitudes not only from New 
Haven, but from Bridgeport, from the allied cities of the Derby region, from 
Naugatuck and Waterl)ury, ]Meriden and Hartford, and from all points to the 
eastward. It's a great place to see summer life, and still more favorable for 
study of the high art of separating man — not to mention woman — from his 
money. 

This summer flood has made no small police and fire and excise problem for 
We.st Haven. It has not always been solved in the best way. But with experi- 
ence the borough authorities seem to improve. However, there is obvious need 
for more powers and some improvements that only a municipality can have. 
West Haven suffers from Savin Rock ; it also profits from Savin Rock. The lat- 
ter condition is so positive that nobody is likely to volunteer much aid in help- 
ing West Haven meet its difSculty. 



CHAPTER XXXIII 
WALLINGFORD 

E^\ELY LIFE OF THE MOTHER TOWN OF MERIDEN AND CHESHIRE — ITS CHURCHES, 
SCHOOLS AND SOME OP THE MEN WHO HAVE MADE IT 

On the eastern bordei' of New Haveu Couuty, just above the point where the 
boundary line of the county turns eastward for five miles to take in the towns 
of Guilford and Madison, is an irregularly shaped town of 37.4 square miles. It 
was called Wallingford when it was set off from the New Haven tract in 1670, 
from "Walling-ford in Berkshire County of Old England. Today it has a popula- 
tion estimated at more than 12,-500 people, of whom upward of 10,000 are 
included in a borough district which occupies about a twelfth of the area of the 
town. In that borough is the dynamic force of Wallingfoi'd — its manufacturing 
force. For Wallingford, older than ]Meriden, wa.s independently one of the 
important points of origin of the silver shaping and plating industry, and retains 
one of the largest independent silver plants of America. There are some indus- 
tries of note outside the borough limits, but in the main the part of Wallingford 
which lies outside the borough is farming country, good and well improved. 

Less positive in its natural features than the towns to the south and north 
of it, Wallingford has its unmistakable character of topography. It has the 
grandeur of the shadow of Mount Carmel, which rises clear to its southern bor- 
der. At its far eastern point it has in Besick Mountain a height almost as great — 
700 feet, on account of which, partly, the Air Line road had to belie its name and 
make a detour into Durham through Reed's Gap, as it leaves Wallingford. It 
has diversifying heights all over its .surface, except where at the south it slopes 
off toward the plain of North Haven. And through it from north to south flows 
the Quinnipiae River, there a substantial stream, with possibilities of water 
power which have by no means been neglected. Today it is an agreeable com- 
bination of manufacturing and agricultural community, an example of New 
England 2)luck, enterprise and prosperity in their most commendable forms. 

Colonial Wallingford was a territory of distinguished size. For it was a 
large part of that second New Haven purchase from the Indians, which ran, 
as it was roughly described, ten miles north and south along the Quinnipiae, and 
extended about eight miles east and five miles west from the river. Original 
Wallingford, therefore, included the territory from the North Haven and Bran- 
ford upper lines northward to that east and west division of Meriden which 

319 



;520 A MODERN HISTOK-Y OF NEW HAVEN 

was the "Masou and Dixon line" between the colonics of New Haven and Hart- 
ford, and westward from the eastern boundary of the county to beyond the 
western side of Cheshire. Meriden was carved from this territory in 1806, 
and Cheshire was taken in 1780, leaving still a town of substantial size. It 
had 2,325 people after the second parting. That number did not "boom" in 
the following decades, but showed a steady, consistent growth which is like 
Wallingford. By 1850 it had become almost 2,600, but such was its centralization 
that its people. felt the need of forming a borough government. This they did 
in 1853, making Wallingford the sixth borough to be formed in the state. 

The colony of New Haven was just entering its fourth decade when it sent 
out the pioneers who made Wallingford. That first year, which was 1669, they 
called the place "New Haven village." Only a year later the legislature incor- 
porated it as Wallingford. That pilgrimage, like the first, was led by a minister, 
Rev. Samuel Street, and he and his followers brought with them the spirit of 
church dominance that prevailed in New Haven. Thirty-eight heads of families 
were in the pai'ty, and there was .a systematic allotment between them of the 
land then included in the township, each getting six acres. 

These names have lieen preserved, not only in the histories, but in the making 
of a noble town of the true New England character. Not a few of them were 
substantial members of the Davenport-Eaton colony, coming over on the Hector 
or arriving soon afterward. Among them is the name of Thoma,s Yale, father of 
Elihu, and we understand from that why Yale as a family name is more con- 
spicuous in Wallingford than in New Haven. There was also the Eaton name, 
still found in Wallingford. Hall was represented by two families, and has lost 
nothing in the passage of tlie years. In the course of that progress has come 
tlie Lyman Hall who signed the Declaration of Independence as one of the dele- 
gates from Georgia. Abraham Doolittle, Samuel Cooke, John Broekett, 
Nathaniel and Jermiah and Zachariah How, John Merriman, Nathan and Samuel 
Andrews, Sanuiel Munson, Eleazur and John Peck, are a few of the others to 
make up the fonndei-s, or, as they were formally called the "planters," most of 
them well represented in the town toda.y. 

They were Puritans, and religious worship was the center of the community. 
But they seem not to have hastened, as did John Davenport's followers, to the 
building of a meeting house. In Rev. Samuel Street they had a faithful leader, 
and they were for several yeare able to find places in their homes where they 
could gather. So it was not until 1675 that the church was formally organized, 
and tliree years later that they decided to build the fii-st meeting house. That, 
when completed, was but a bare building twenty-four by twenty-eight feet, of 
the very primitive type. The fact that seven years previous to this, in 1671, the 
planters were taxed to secure funds to provide an ordained minister would indi- 
cate that the work of Mr. Street ceased before that. He was the first of a line 
of distinguished pastors, including such men as Rev. James Noyes, in the years 
from ]789 to 1830, Rev. Edwin R. Gilbert, from then till 1874, Rev. C. H. Dickin- 
son. 1886 to 1893. Rev. John J. Blair. 1894 to 1903. Rev. John Burford Parrv 




POSTOFFICE. WALLIXGFORD 




HK.H St H(MiI. JHILDIXG. WALLIXOFORD 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 321 

came to the church in 1911, and for six years thrilled the people of the congrega- 
tion and community with his splendid and inspiring leaderehip, leaving regret- 
fully at the call of the large Hope church in Springfield. Rev. Edwin G. 
Zellars has succeeded him in favor of the church and community. 

Primitive as it was, the first church building served for almost a century. 
In 1771 it was replaced by a much larger one of three stories, which for almost 
another century was the ''First Church of Wallingford" in more senses than 
one. In 186!) this was replaced by the present noble l)uilding on ]Main street, 
an example of the best of its type of New England church architecture, and a 
credit to the town. 

The beginnings of the Church of England worship in Wallingford go back 
to 1729, but it was nearly three decades later that there was an Episcopal church 
building. Meanwhile, the small number of Episcopalians in town had shared 
with their brethren in North Haven the "Union Church" on Pond Hill. The 
first building in Wallingford was in 1758, and had the distinction of what was 
doubtless the first church organ brought to Wallingford. With all other Episco- 
palians the Wallingford people suffered the setback which the Revolutionary 
war brought to their form of worship, and it was well toward the end of the cen- 
tury before they got on their feet again. What is now known as St. Paul's, the 
outgrowth of that church, is now occupying its fourth building, its present digni- 
fied and churchly structure having been erected in 1869. The rector is Rev. 
Arthur P. Greenleaf, who is also in charge of the church of St. John the Evan- 
gelist in Yalesville, the only other church of this faith in town. 

Baptist beginnings were also found very early. The attitude which the 
■'orthodox" church took toward that faith must have made their path thorny 
in 17o5, unless Wallingford was more liberal than most other Connecticut com- 
munities. But though their church was organized at that date, 1817 is given 
as the date of the foundation of the First Baptist, whose spire now pierces the 
sky in the center of Wallingford. This steeple, however, was not added until 
1847. It still holds, presumably that bell which Lord Wallingford of England 
gave to the church in 1817. The pastor in 1917 was Rev. W. T. Thayer. There 
is a Baptist church at Yalesville of which Rev. C. W. Longman was pastor in 
1917, and a Hungarian Baptist in the borough, organized in 1914, whose pastor 
is Rev. Michael Fabian. 

The start of Methodism in Wallingford is comparatively recent, and the first 
church to be organized was not in the borough, but in Yalesville. It is called the 
First Methodist and was started in 1867. There is also a First Methodist in the 
borough, organized in 1895. The pastor of the former is Rev. William C. Judd, 
and of the latter Rev. John Moore. 

As with many of the other denominations, Catholicism had its beginnings 
considerably before there was strength for a church. It was in 1857 that a church 
was organized and a building erected on North Colony Street, that being the 
building which was found in the path of the memorable tornado of 1878. Rebuilt 
in 1887, it is now the Most Holy Trinity Church, of which Rev. John H. Carroll 



322 



A MODERN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN 



is pastor, one of the strongest churches in Wallingford. The St. Kazimir Polish 
National Church was organized in 1915, and is doing a good work under Rev. 

Joseph Solstyiak. 

One of the live congregations of Wallingford todrfy meets in the Advent 
Church, of which Rev. Henry Stone is pastor. Incorporated in 1880, it has for 
almost four decades been doing an able work in the community. 

There is a Hungarian Reformed Church, of which Rev. Bela Kovacs is pastor, 
and a single synagogue of the faith of Israel. 

Early Wallingford had the -'church on the hilltop"; the "schoolhouse i)i 
every valley" followed not far behind. In 1719 there were three schools, the 
minimum number, it would seem, for so scattered a community as the then 
undivided town was. They were open to the service of the parents of the town 
only on payment of a fee, and gave the crudest sort of instruction. Neverthe- 
less, they were the foundation for the six grammar and six district schools 
which the town has today, in addition to its handsome High school. The esti- 
mated value of the plant is now a quarter of a million dollai-s, and $60,000 is 
the annual expenditure for the free education of Wallingford 's 2,872 cliildren 
of school age. John W. Kratzer is superintendent of schools and acting principal 
of the High school. 

Wallingford has a private school, college preparatory for boys, which has 
won success by deserving it — and the 'success is marked. The Choate School 
now has a wide reputation for high class and thorough instruction, and its loca- 
tion is in many respects ideal. Its head master is George Clare St. John, with 
a corps of eighteen assistants. 

Wallingford has a federal building of unusually attractive architecture, com- 
pleted at a cost of $95,000 in 1913, and standing at a prominent point on South 
Main Street. For securing it so soon, and securing so tine a building, Walling- 
ford thanks first Senator Orville H. Piatt, and second its own honored citizen, 
Charles 6. Phelps, formerly his secretary at AVashington, now the secretaiy of 
the ilanufacturers' Association of Connectieiit, always an active worker for 
the good of his beloved town. A postmaster and assistant, four clerks, seven 
local and three mounted earriere distribute from this center Wallingford 's mail 
to borough and town. 

Its age as a borough by this time has given Wallingford effective experience 
in municipal management, and there are few communities in the state that are 
better governed. Nearly a decade ago it attacked in earnest the problem of per- 
manent paving, and has now to show for its intelligent effort upwards of ten 
miles of asphalt, brick, tar and water bound macadam pavement, an ef(uipment 
to be matched by few boroughs of its size. It has a motorized fire department, 
consisting of a chemical engine company, two hose companies, a hook and ladder 
and a volunteer company, of which the chief engineer is John J. Luby. There 
is a municipal water supply plant, constructed in 1882, which conducts water 
by gravity, mainly from Pistapaugh Pond, four and one-half miles east of the 
borough, and Lane's Pond, the two together having a capacity oi nearly 




HOIA" TRINITY I HlKrH. \VALLIX(;F()i;l) 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 323 

600,000,000 gallons. There is also an auxiliary pumping station of a million 
gallons' capacity. The borough has its publicly owned electric light and power 
plant, of which it is highly and justly proud. John E. Martin was warden of 
the borough in 1917. 

Wallingford has an adequate number of banks which for efficient manage- 
ment, substance and security are the match of any. The First National, with 
a record of over thirty-five years behind it, is capitalized at $150,000 and has a 
surplus of $50,000 more, over 800 accounts and deposits approaching half a 
million. In its foundation and management have been associated some of the 
most substantial men of Wallingford, such as Samuel Simpson, W. J. Leaven- 
worth, the late Judge Leverett M. Plubbard and Frank A. Wallace, the present 
head of the R. Wallace & Sons Manufacturing Company. The Wallingford 
Trust Company is the youngest of the banking institutions, with $50,000 capital, 
well ec^uipped to do a trust and savings business. Its president is Lewis M. 
Phelps and its secretary and treasurer C. Leslie Hopkins. The Dime Savings 
Bank, in existence since 1871, is a conservatively managed but most successful 
institution which well testifies to Wallingford 's thrift. By the last report it had 
deposits of $1,698,250. Its president is Henry H. Peck and its treasurer Edwin 
C. Northrop. 

Wallingford, beautiful for location, has been chosen as the site of the masonic 
Home of Connecticut, which is delightfully situated on the west hills of the 
town, where a fine building was completed in 1897. It now has several additions, 
and grows with its requirements. The wards of Connecticut Masonry could 
hardly have better surroundings or management. 

One of Wallingford 's state-famous institutions is the Gaylord Farm Sana- 
torium, which serves all New Haven county as a private place for the treat- 
ment of tuberculosis. Originally due to the initiative of Wallingford people, 
its excellent management ha.s attracted service and gifts from many wealthj' 
persons of county and state, and under the skillful direction of Dr. David R. 
Lyman it is reckoned the state's best private institution of the sort. 

Wallingford has a well equipped and attractive public library, established 
in 1881, and conducted by the Ladies' Library and Reading Room assoeia- 
ton. of which ]Mrs. G. Frederick Hall is president. The library had 13,717 vol- 
umes in 1917, and has substantial additions each year. Its librarian is Miss 
Minnie E. Gedney. 

There are some forty-six fraternities, societies, clubs and similar organiza- 
tions. Among them are four bodies of the Masonic order, three of the Odd 
Fellows, four courts of the Foresters of America, two divisions of the Ancient 
Order of Hibernians, one council of the Knights of Columbus, one aerie of the 
Eagles, one trilse of the Red Men, a lodge of the New England Order of Pi'o- 
tection, one of the endowment rank of Knights of Pythias, one of the Royal 
Arcanum, Wallingford Grange, three temperance societies and Arthur H. Dut- 
ton post, G. A. R., with its woman's relief corps. There are two prominent 
clubs, the Wallingford Club and the Wallingford Country Club. 



324 A MODERN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN 

In a commuuity which for years has made it a conscientious custom to cele- 
brate the nation's birthday in a sane and thoug-htful manner, one expects 
tviin patriotism as a matter of course. Wallingf ord 's Fourth of July events 
have become widely famous. So, in the crisis of war, Wallingford has never 
been found wanting. It is through hundreds of soldiers, sailors ^nd other war 
workers carrying on its share of the nation's great struggle with all its heart. 
It has had its one military company since 1871 — Company K of the Second regi- 
ment that was. At times in its existence it has been known as the Wallingford 
Light Guard, but in all its history it has been composed of good soldiers. They 
are good soldiers still, honoring their state at the front. The company went 
out in the fall of 1917 under the command of a captain from another town, 
hut witli Lieut. Dana T. Leavenworth of Wallingfoi^. 

And Wallingford can never lack distinction among the towns of America 
in the war so long as it is remembered that Major Raoul Lufbury, premier of 
.'American airmen on the fighting front, owns the town as his home. 

It is forty years since Wallingford 's calamity, as great as it was sudden, 
made it nationally famous at a cost too dear. There are thousands living in 
almost all parts of tlie country who instantly associate the name of Wallingford 
with "the great tornado of 1878." Even compared with the now familiar tor- 
nado or cyclone of the' western plains, this held and .still holds a bad eminence. 
The valley in which the borough lies is especially subject to violent summer 
storms. With hardly more than the usual warning, at 6 :15 on the evening of 
Friday, August 9, 1878, a rushing, twisting blast of wind, followed by torrents 
of water, swept southeast across the town. 'It visited especially wlmt had been 
"the community" section, but did not wholly miss tlie center. It was over in 
a minute and a half, though the deluge lasted for ten or twelve minutes. When 
it had pa.ssed, twenty -nine persons were dead (another died within a day or 
two), thirty -six were more or less seriously injured, and thirty or forty dwell- 
ings, with an uncounted number of barns and smaller buildings were unroofed 
or laid low, while two or three times that number were more or less damaged. 
The largest building destroyed was that of the Most Holy Trinity Catholic 
churcli on North Colony Street, which was wholly demolished. It was a ter- 
rible experience for a town of 4,500 people, and Wallingford shudders over 
it vet. ' , 




THE MASONIC TKMin.l-:, \VALLIX(;Fl)KI) 



CHAPTER XXXIV 
WALLINGFORD (Concluded) 

MANUFACTURING AND INDUSTRIAL HISTORY OF AN IMPORTANT CENTER OF THE SlLVEll 
FABRICATING ART, AND ITS PRESENT-DAY PROGRESS 

This structure of two centuries and a half was not achieved without labor, 
and Wallingford prides itself that it is a community of workers. Whether 
in the busy central borough, with its driving wheels and smoke-pennanted chim- 
neys, or in the fringe of communities which industrial plants make about it, 
or in the setting of prosperous farms which encloses the whole, Wallingford 
beats with honest, intelligent industry. It is proud of that. It exults in the 
fame of what it produces. For whether it be a Wallingford peach or a Wal- 
lingford spoon or a Wallingford apple, it is a goodly product, in which the 
user rejoices. 

There is little chance for precedence in this dual fame of Wallingford. 
If tlie farmers of Wallingford began to get crops in 1670, the wheels of the 
miller began to turn by the .side of Wharton's Brook in 1674. The manufac- 
turing of the first century and a half, of course, before the days of modern 
demand or transportation, was of the primitive nature which is shown in other 
Connecticut towns away from tide-water, but it had a certain steady progress 
from the beginning. That old grist mill right, first used by the town, transferred 
by the town to William Tyler in 1707, a century later passed on to Charles 
Yale, then transferred to Samuel Simpson in 1835, was the beginning of the 
.silver industry of which- Wallingford, in a very true sense, was the origin and 
center. Yet Wallingford is not at all exclusively a silver town. Of the twenty- 
one considerable factories found today in the town of Wallingford only seveu 
are devoted to the making of silver, flat ware or white metal. These, to be sure, 
include the town's most important plants. ,One of them alone employs almost as 
many people as all the other factories put together, while the seven of them have 
a great majority of the workers. An impressive proof, moreover, of the emi- 
nence which Wallingford has in the silver industry is the fact that it contains 
one of the most important silver factories in the country which has remained 
outside of the International Silver Company combination. That is R. Wallace 
& Sons ^Manufacturing Company. It is the descendant of the old mill afore- 
said, through Samuel Simpson, its purchaser in 1835, through the Humiston 
Mills, which he purchased in 1847, then through the partnership, formed in 

325 



326 A MODERN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN 

1855, with Robert Wallace, to the final purchase, iu 1871, of the interest of 
Mr. Simpson by Robert Wallace, and the formation of the present company. 

It was the revelation to Robert Wallace, as far back as 1855, of the possi- 
bilities of the metal known as Gennan silver that started him on his career. He 
purchased the foi-mula from Dr. Feuchtwanger, a German chemist who had 
just brought it to this countrj^, and threw himself with the might and the 
mind of a Yankee into the new manufacture. The firm which bears his name 
today is the summary of his success. In the largest factory of his native town, 
iu rooms with a floor space of over five acres, employing upward of 1,200 peo- 
ple — skilled craftsmen, mechanics, artists of all sorts — is made an endless vari- 
ety of sterling silver flat ware, hollow ware, toilet ware and novelties, silver 
plated ware of an even greater variety, which goes to almost every country 
of the world. 

When the International Silver Company was organized, there were in Wal- 
liugford three other important silver making factories. The largest of these was 
Simpson, Hall, Miller & Company, the outgrowth of the company of his own 
which Samuel Simpson formed in 1866, after Robert Wallace had purchased 
his interests. Shortly afterward Mr. Simpson organized the company under 
its present name. It is Factory L of the trust, and makes an important line of 
silver sterling and plated ware. Over forty years ago there was in Wallingford 
a Shaker community of some size, and with thrifty instinct they turned to the 
making of silver goods. The lake or pond iu the upper part of the borough still 
bears their name — Community Lake. When their diminishing numbers gave 
up the struggle in Wallingford and went to join forces with a community else- 
where, a Wallingford company, which afterward became the Watrous Manu- 
facturing Company, purchased their plant. It is now iu the trust as Factory 
P. There remained one firm, established in 1871, the Simpson Nickel Silver 
Company. That in turn was absorbed as Factory M. The three factories 
together now employ the greater part of a thousand people. 

There are three smaller plants, two of them of Rogers affiliation, which 
remain independent. The Dowd, Rogers Company makes silver plated ware 
and novelties. The S. L. & G. H. Rogers Company makes silver plated table 
ware. This is a $250,000 company, and George M. Hallenbeck is its president. 
The Wallingford Company, Inc., makes electro plated flat ware, employing about 
200 people. 

The New York Insulated Wire Company, with half a million dollars capital, 
was established in 1884, and is the second oldest concern of its line in the United 
States. Some twenty years ago there was in Wallingford a Metropolitan Rub- 
ber Company, and in 1889 the New York Insulated Wire Company, outgrowing 
its quarters in Reading, Mass., moved to Wallingford and occupied with the 
rubber company its factory on Cherry Street. The rubber company retired from 
business about 1903, and since then the wire company has occupied and enlarged 
the factory. ' It now employs about 300 workers, and produces annually some 
millions of feet of rubber covered wires and thousands of pounds of insulating 







R. WALLACE AND SOXS' MAXUFACTURIXCi COMTAXY. \VALLIX(:;F0RD 




FACTORY L OF THE IXTERXATIOXAL SILN'ER COJIPAXY, '\\ALLmGFORD 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 327 

tapes and compounds. It lias a market for its goods not only all over the coun- 
try but in the far corners of the earth, supplying leading electrical concerns as 
far away as Mexico, South America, South Africa and Japan. Its main offices 
are in New York city, and it has branches in Boston, Chicago, San Francisco and 
Japan. Its president is C. H. Wilcox of New York, and its general manager is 
William Poole, assisted by Walter Ilill and A. C. Brooks. 

Wallingford has been making fireworks for over forty years, and its 
M. Baekes' Sons Fireworks Company is one of the old concerns in a business iu 
which this country has taken a lead in the last few decades. Not only that, 
but it is estimated that it supplies ninety per cent, of the toy cap, torpedo and 
firecracker trade of the United States, and besides sends quantities of goods to 
Canada, South America and Australia. Its Star Brand is a familiar one to 
celebrators in a large part of the world. It has withal made every effort to 
conform its product to the requirements for a saner type of holiday explosive, 
and everything it makes is combined with such accuracy as to reduce the liability 
of accident to the lowest point. It employs some seventy-five skilled workmen, 
and all its ownei-s and managers live in and are prominent in Wallingford. Its 
factoi-y is on Wallace Street, and its officers are: Charles Baekes, president; 
Mi.ss Kate Baekes, secretary; Henry R. Baekes, treasurer. The company was 
organized in 1904, with a capital of $50,000. It has always been progi-essivc, 
and its lines are constantly increasing and developing novelty in the hands of 
experts and inventors. 

The business of H. L. Judd Company, makers of upholsterers' hardware, 
bright wire goods, metal fancy goods and such products, was started iu the late 
'sixties by H. L. Judd. In 1879 John Day, now president, came in as a partner, 
and in 1884 the business was incorporated as H. L. Judd & Company, being 
sixteen years later, on the death of Mr. Judd, changed to its present form. It 
has grown to a capital of $350,000, and employs over 1,000 hands. Its Walling- 
ford plant now makes brass goods alone, but it has a wood cui-tain pole factory 
in East Chattanooga, Term. Its factory in Brooklyn was combined with the 
Wallingford shops to the enlargement of the latter. It has offices and show 
rooms at two points in New York city, btit remains, as it was in the beginning, 
a strictly Wallingford industry. It makes enormous quantities of. high grade 
goods, which are widely known as a famous Wallingford product. 

The W. A. Ives Manufacturing Company, wood boring tools, is another of the 
substantial firms of Wallingford, established 1830. It has a capital of $50,000 
and employs a large force. Its president is C. J. Dunham. 

Other manufacturing concerns are less conspicuous in size, but each has its 
importance. Five of them create the village of Yalesville, where the C. I. 
Yale Manufacturing Company makes chemicals, the William Brisk & Sons Manu- 
facturing Company makes coffee percolators, the Charles Parker Company 
makes hardware, the Connecticut Screen and Cabinet Company makes cabinet 
work and window screens and Brown & Wilcox make cement block and artificial 



328 A MODERN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN 

stone. The Jeunin^ & Griffiu Manufacturing Company makes machinists' tools 
at Tracy, and incidentally makes the Tracy village. 

Several other industries make up the goodly company, among them being 
the Eastern Woodworking Company, woodwork and handles; W. J. Hodgette 
Paper Box Manufacturing Company, paper boxes; Paul A. Koletzke, wagons; 
Malmquist Brothers, die sinkers ; Oddy & Son, wagon and auto wheels ; Wilbur 
Company, celluloid. 

This is, it might seem, the substance of the borough and town of Walling- 
ford. But it could not live except for the agriculture which improves the town 
acres of which the manufacturing plants, large as they are, occupy but a little 
part. Moreover, Wallingford is almost as widely and altogether as favorably 
known for its produts of farm and orchard as for its manufactures. And thougii 
one might not expect to find it so, the industry of farming, on a large scale is 
younger in Wallingford than is manufacturing. The pioneer in the raising of 
peaches dates his first orchard investment only from 1880, when Elijah Hough 
set out 100 trees. Now, one who rides by train through Wallingford in the 
season finds its hillsides so glowing with the pink beauty that he wonders if 
nothing but peaches grows in that region. The facts are more definite. It 
is estimated that Wallingford raises something over a quarter of a million 
baskets of peaches annually, and in an especially good year the crop is much 
larger than that. There are now ten large growers besides Mr. Hough, with 
some 62,500 bearing trees, and this does not take into account some scores of 
smaller growers. 

In 1904 W. A. Henry, formerh' dean of the Agricultural College of Wis- 
consin, purchased Blue Hills farm, some 300 acres on the western slopes of the 
Quinnipiac valley, and clearing considerable acres of its abandoned land, planted 
them with peach, apple, pear, cherry, Japanese plum and quince trees, until 
about 125 acres are so set. Ten years later of peaches alone 25,000 baskets were 
Iiarvested. The professor testifies as an expert that Wallingford land, wliile not 
notably rich, is peculiarly adapted to the production of these fruits, and urges 
his neighbors to put more faith in their soil. 

There is nearby supply for starting such orchards, for in the town also is 
the Barnes Brothers Nursery Company, started in 1900 and incorporated four 
years later. It is the most extensive producer of fruit trees and plants in Ncav 
England, supplying fruit gi-owere in New England, New York, New Jersey and 
Delaware. In Fredonia and Dansville, New York, it has branch nurseries for 
products which cannot be economically grown in Wallingford. Its nurseries 
produce all manner of fruit, small fruit trees and shrubs and shade trees, occu- 
pying 125 acres. Barnes Brothers also have 550 acres in farm land and peach 
orchards. 

Faith in the agricultural possibilities of Wallingford is not rare, as hun- 
dreds of small farms testify. The town is within easy shipping distance of New 
York and Boston, so that in addition to the local and nearby markets, there is 
ready means of disposing of the product. The railroads are convenient, and the 




H. L. JUDD MANUFACTURING CX3., WALLINC4F0RD 




CXJENER OF MAIN AND CENTER STREETS, WALLINGFORD 



AND EASTEKN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 329 

roads to the nearby towus steadily improve, while the motor truck is coming 
to be more dependable than the railroad. 

The success of Wallingford is a matter of team play rather than of individual 
distinction. It has contributed its share of men great in the work and counsel 
of state and nation. But the story of the men who make it today is told mainly 
in this record of church and education and industry. Names like Frank A. 
Wallace, C. H. Tibbits, John Day, Charles G. Phelps and Charles Backes in 
manufacturing; C. W. Leavenwortli, F. il. Cowles, Lewis il. Phelps and Henry 
W. Peck in banking; Eev. J. Burford Parry, Rev. Arthur P. Greenleaf, Rev. 
Edwin G. Zellers, Rev. John H. Carroll and Henry Stone in the churches; 
George Clare St. John and John W. Kratzer in the schools; Dr. David R. 
Lyman, Dr. John H. Buffum, Dr. Irving E. Brainerd and Dr. William S. Rus- 
sell in medicine; the late Judge Leverett M. Hubbard, Judge John G. Phelaii, 
Judge Oswin H. D. Fowler, Michael T. Downes and Charles A. Harrison in law ; 
E. J. Hough and A. T. Henry in agi-iculture — these indicate to the discerning 
something of the reason why Wallingford today is the substantial, prosperous 
community it is. 



CHAPTER XXXV 
BRANFORD 

ORIGINS OF AN IMPORTANT OLD COLONIAL TOWN, AND THE EVOLUTION FROM THEM 
OP A LIVELY, MODERN MANUFACTURING ANQ.. FARMING COMMUNITY 

When, in the spring of 1644, the ten-itory of Totoket was sold by the New 
Haven proprietors to Mr. Swaine and certain others who had lately come down 
from Wethei-sfield, it was described as "a place fit for a small plantation, betvnxt 
New Haven and Guilford. ' ' As then bounded, there were some forty-five square 
miles of it. and it compared well with other plantations except the very large 
one that Guilford was before Madison was set oif from it. And it was a goodly 
plantation. 

Branford, like Guilford, received its original settlement independently of 
New Haven. The New Haven colonists had land to spare, and wanted neighbors. 
They seem to have offered inducements to such desirable planters as Mr. Swainc 
and his associates from Wethersfield, and the Rev. Abraham Piersou and his 
followers from Southampton, Long Island, proved to be. Samuel, brother of 
Theophilus Eaton, had obtained a grant of tlie Totoket part of the second pur- 
chase from tlie Indians, representing that he wished it for such friends as he 
might bring over from England. He sailed away then, and on his return to 
England .seems to have lost his taste for the New World; at least, he did not 
come back, and the land remained unoccupied. 

There was an incident between this grant and tlie time of the actual settle- 
ment whose close approach to conditions changing the whole face of southern 
New Haven County seem to have been overlooked. The Dutch explorers were 
always prospecting, and within two or three years after Samuel Eaton sailed 
away, they entered the mouth of Branford River. There they set up stakes, 
and established a trading post. Then they too sailed away, and virtually they 
did not come back. We are likely never to get the whole story of "Dutch 
House Wharf" at Branford; perhaps there is nothing to tell. But something 
seems to be lacking of explanation why the Dutch failed to retain their sense 
of the natural advantages of the Branford location. 

Totoket, "the tidal river," was the poetic Indian name. It still remains 
as a place name, still is applied to that commanding cliff which stands near the 
bounds between what was upper Branford and what still is upper Guilford. 
Brenford or Brainford, a town on the Brent dose to London, was the place of 

330 




OLDEST HOUSE IN BRANFORD 
Built in 1666. Orijiinally a fort. Mado intu a lioiiso by a Mr 



owiUT in the Rovnhitionaiv War. ]!■ 



Plumli. Danirl Averill 
II ill till' Avcrill Kaiiiilv 11,") years. 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 331 

origin of some of the immigrants. So, with eventual changes, Branford it 
became. The settlers found their Indian associates good neighbors, the latter 
appreciated the white man's protection, and together they prospered. 

There is a fairly good record of the names of those who came down froui 
Wethersfield, and of those who came out from New Haven to join them. The 
personnel of the party that came with Rev. Abraham Piei-son has not been 
preserved. The reason for that is, no doubt, that the stay of the latter was 
comparatively brief. They had come from Southampton because they preferred 
the New Haven style of government. But when, in 1664, by the recklessness of 
Charles II in boimding New Netherlands on the east by the Connecticut River, 
they found themselves ostensibly in Dutch territory, while the others protested 
but remained, the Rev. Abraham Pierson and his followere folded their tents 
like the Arabs, and quietly stole away to Newark. 

The real leader of the Wethersfield party, who was pastor in the beginnings 
of the Branford church, was Rev. John Sherman. He removed to Watertown 
on the coming of Mr. Piereon. William Swaine, or Swain, and his sons Samuel 
and Daniel, Richard Harrison, Robert Rose, Thomas Whitehead, Edward Fris- 
bie, John Hill, John Norton, Samuel Nettleton and Edward Treadwell, were 
among the other members from Wethersfield. Thoma.s Morris, Thomas Lup- 
ton, George and Lawrence Ward and John Crane came out from New Haven. 
There were two other early settlers whose status is of interest. The comere in 
1644 found Thomas Mulliner and Thomas Whitway on the ground. The former 
was something of an adventurer, described as "a restless and independent spirit." 
He had made his purchase from the Indians, had settled near the sea and naturally 
regarded the later arrivals somewhat as usurpers. They never got along with him, 
but when he died in 1690, they made a bargain with his wife and son to trade 
their land at what had come to be known as " Mulliner 's Neck" for a tract of 
200 acres in the northwestern section of the town. From then the Mulliner 
name is identified with North Branford. So with the name of Thomas Whit- 
way, who made no trouble for the early party because his place was in Foxon. 
But he also was independent, though some effort has been made to show that 
he was with the Wethersfield immigrants. 

There are. in the early story of Branford 's ancient church features that 
reveal much of the human nature of the planters and their descendants, and 
appeal to us today with some little humor. They do not concern the pastorate 
of Rev. Samuel Russell, who came to the pulpit of Abraham Pierson the first 
in 1686, and remained until his death in 1731. His was truly one of the great 
pastorates of Connecticut, and his descendants are among the noblest of Bran- 
ford and North Branford. It was in his house in Branford, the most authentic 
records prove, that the foundations of Yale were morally and spiritually, and 
probably legally laid. He was no small part of the force which brought Yale 
eventually to New Haven. He was a man of power and vision, and built as wisely 
for all Branford. 

But before Pastor Russell there was a church period which reveals some- 



332 A MODERN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN 

Ihing of the unformed nature of the community from 1666 to 1686. We are told 
hv one authority that Pastor Piei-son provided a successor in the pei-son of Rev. 
John Bowers, a graduate of Harvard who had been brought to New Haven 
as a teacher, but the further records of his work in Bi-anford are somewhat 
indistinct. In fact, it appears that the twenty years between the notable pas- 
torates was one in which tlie people indulged in a practice which formerly 
deliglited New England chvu-ches, that of candidating. Thei-e were thirteen or 
fourteen men in that period, one authority says. 

Soon after Mr. Russell "s death began, in 1733, the interesting pastorate of 
Rev. Philemon Robbius. He was a man of power and character, we may judge, 
but rather advanced, in some respects, for his people and times. For about 1741 
arose as nearby as Wallingford certain of a strange sect known as Baptists. 
There had come to Mr. Robbins's congregation from Wallingford a lady who 
held to that faith, and she brought it about that he was invited to go up and 
preach, one Sunday in the following January, to the people with whom she had 
worshipped. In the frateimity of his spirit, he went, and preached two ser- 
mons. The act came near to being his destruction, as far as Brauford was con- 
cerned. It appeals strongly to our sense of the ridiculous that the people of the 
Branford Church actually called a solemn council and haled Mr. Robbins before 
it on serious charges of having "in a disorderly manner" preached to the Bap- 
tists of Wallingford. The act he cheerfully admitted; the disorder they did 
not prove. And instead of casting Mr. Robbins out, the result was a firmer 
establishment of him in the hearts of tliose of his people who remained loyal 
to him. These were not all, however. A substantial number regai'ded his rec- 
ognition of the Baptists as a mortal sin, and went away and formed an Ejjiscopal 
church. 

Mr. Robbins's death in 1781 closed another remarkably long pastorate. In 
the next ccnturv' he has had some able successors, among them Rev. Lynde 
Huntington in the early period and Rev. C. W. Hill, Rev. Cyrus P. Osborne 
and Rev. Henry Pearson Bake in the later. Rev. Thomas Bickford was with 
the church from 1889 to 1892, and Rev. T. S. Devitt from 1893 to 1909. He was 
followed by Rev. Seelye K. Tompkins, who also was found a wanderer from 
the path of conservatism, and not aU of the people followed him fully. There 
was not so decided a split a-s at the earlier time, but some who failed to approve 
of Mr. Tompkins's ways as to church management rather than as to belief felt 
for a time constrained to wor.ship elsewhere. But he had a loyal following, and 
his ability seems to have been recognized in his call in 1916 to a large church 
in Cincinnati. He was succeeded by Rev. Theodore B. Lathrop, who has proved 
a most acceptable leader. 

The number, it seems, of those dissenters from the liberal Rev. Philemon 
Robbins wa.s not large. Probably before that tliere were those inclined to the 
Church of England form of worship, and these and the dissenters joined to 
form what has become Trinity parish. The date given is 1748, but it was 1784 
before there was an\i:hing but a missionary church, or a church building was 




SOLDIERS' JIOXUJIENT. BKAXFORD 




THE OLD ACADEMY, liRAXFORD 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 333 

erected. After that was provided in 1786 there was a long succession of rectors, 
few of whom remained as much as ten years. In the present period the churcli 
has had Rev. Melville K. Bailey, from 1885 to 1891 ; Rev. F. B. Whitcome, 1891 to 
1894 ; Rev. George I. Brown, fi-om 1895 to 1898 ; Rev. Henry W. Winkley, 1899 
to 1906, and since then Rev. George Weed Barhydt, whose present place of 
influence in the Branford community is a commanding one. Its first houses 
of worship were, like their neighbors of the time, crude pieces of architecture. 
Its present dignified and advantageously situated edifice was built in 1852, and 
its jjarish house was added in 1880. 

Some embers of a former strife blazed up again when in 1838 some Baptists 
from Wallingford proposed to establish a church of that faith in Branford. 
There was opposition as soon as they sought a site for a building. For a time 
they worshipped in private houses. Their first public baptism was held in the 
river near Neck Bridge in 1838, and naturally attracted a crowd. Finally the 
town fathei-s kindly consented to let the new brethren build on the site of the 
old whipping post on the green, and there they did in 1810. The building was 
improved in 1866, and still serves the people. Rev. D. T. Shailer was the first 
pastor. There were twenty pastors from him to Rev. P. H. Wightman, who was 
there for several years following 1886. The pastor at present is Rev. Walter 
V. Gray. 

The Congregational Church at Stony Creek was started in 1865, when Rev. 
Elijah C. Baldwin was pastor of the mother church. He assisted by preaching 
occasionally in the schoolhouse in that district, and a church building was erected 
in 1866. The church was formally organized in 1877, and Rev. C. W. Hill was 
the first pastor. It has done half a centui-y of constructive work for the village, 
and been served by earnest and able men. The present pastor is Rev. A. G. 
Heyhoe. 

St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church was organized in 1855, though Branford 
was not a parish by itself until 1887. In 1876 Rev. Edward Martin was the first 
resident priest. The church has grown steadily from the first, and is today 
one of the strong congregations of its faith outside of the cities. Rev. T. J. 
Murray is the present pastor. 

The latest church to be established, dating from 1888, is the Swedish Evan- 
gelical Lutheran Tabor, of which Rev. Joseph D. Danielson is pastor. 

For its 1,600 children of school age Branford has a complete and modern 
equipment. The plant consists of a well equipped High school, seven graded 
schools and four schools in the outlying districts which, though of the eountiy 
type, are well managed and taught. The superintendent of schools, who is also 
principal of the High school, is Herman S. Lovejoy. In the High school he 
has a force of seven teachers. In Center district graded school there are eight 
rooms, at the Stony Creek school six, at the Canoe Brook school three, and at 
Harbor Street, Short Beach, Indian Neck and Saltonstall two rooms each. The 
district schools are Mill Plain, Damascus, Paved Street and Bushy Plain. 

The board of citizens who direct this school equipment consists of John 



334 A MODERN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN 

W. Cuuningham, chainuan ; John Van Wie, 0. C. Kelsey, J. Edwin Braiuerd, 
H. R. Allswortli, T. G. Fisher, W. C. Higley, E. A. Kraus, and Charles Reynolds. 

There was born on a humble farm just outside of the center of Branford, in 
1793 a descendant in the fifth generation from that William Blackstone who 
was the first settler of Boston. On that same Branford farm four generations 
of Blaekstones before John Blackstone had lived, done their work and given 
substance to the town. He lived there all liis life, and died in Branford ni 
1886, at the ripe age of ninety-three. He had a son, Timothy B. Blackstone, 
who chose a life work that took him outside the old town where his ancestors 
had lived so long. At eighteen he began as a rodman in the engineering depart- 
ment of the New York, New Haven & Hartford railroad. By the application 
of that talent for industry and hard work which he had inherited he rose to 
assistant engineer in construction, to division engineer in construction on the 
Illinois Central, to chief engineer on the Joliet & Chicago, then to president of 
that road. At the age of thirty-five he was made president of the Chicago & 
Alton, and held that position for thirty-five years. Then, at seventy, he retireil 
to a well earned leisure. It is the brief life storj' of one of Branford 's most 
distinguished sons. 

That career of success is marked for Branford in a manner that makes 
every dweller in the town pridefully bless the name of Blackstone. On an 
eminence in the center of the town stands one of the finest library buildings in 
Connecticut, one of the most beautiful to he found outside of the largest cities 
of the country. It is a Grecian temj^le of the purest Ix-auty, carved from Ten- 
nessee marble. Without, the architect, Solon S. Beeman of Chicago, has repro- 
duced in classic fidelity the true lines of Ionian art as shown in the Ereehtheum 
of Athens in the days of the glory that was Greece. Within, in marble of vary- 
ing tints, are wall and pier and arch and entablature, all in rich keeping with 
the dignity of the building. It is an edifice whieh has made Branford the praise 
of lovers of beauty and art the country over, and can never cease to exei't 
its silent influence for the betterment of all who dwell within the town. It houses 
a well chosen library of 34,888 books. , 

So did Timothy B. Blackstone, prominent, successful and wealthy man. pay 
peerless tribute to the memory of the father whose simple greatness made his 
success possible. There have been many memorials, but few that so gracefully 
emphasiiie hidden character. The James Blackstone ^leaiorial Library was com- 
pleted in 1896, at an estimated cost of $300,000, and Mr. Blackstone provided 
•I^^OO.OOO more for its endowment. It is held by the James Blackstone ^Memorial 
Library Association, Incorporated, of which the original incorpoi-ators were 
Thorwald F. Hammer, Edward F. Jones, Dr. Charles W. Gaylord, Edmund 
Zacher, William Regan and Henry W. Hubbard. The trustees now are Dr. 
Gaylord, president; Edwin R. Kelsey, secretary; Alfred E. Hammer, treasurer; 
Mr. Zacher, Mr. Hubbard and Andrew Keogh, M. A., librarian of Yale Laiiver- 
sity. The present Blackstone librarian is Charles N. Baxter. 

Two banks serve the business machinery and the thrift of Branford. The 



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AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 335 

older of tlieiu is the Brauford Savings, which is known for its sound and con- 
servative management, and has three (luarters of a million doliai-s in deposits. 
Its president is Charles Hoadley, and its treasurer Wallace H. Foote. The 
liranford Trust Company, of which Richard Bradley is president, Henry F. 
Jourdan vice president and William R. Foote treasurer, has a capital of $25,0U0 
and surplus of $14,000. 

Branford the borough was incorporated in 1893. It provides a strong cen- 
tral government, and has been managed largely as a business institution. Its 
chief executive in 1917 was Valdemar T. Hammer. The town officers tlie same 
year were : Selectmen, Louis A. Fisk, John T. Sliney and J. Edwin Brainerd ; 
town clerk, Charles A. Hoadley; judge of town court, Edwin R. Kelsey; clerk 
and prosecutor of the same, John Fades and Earle A. Barker. The borough 
has an eflScient fire department of which Wilson Thompson is chief, consisting 
of two hose companies, a hook and ladder company and a chemical engine. 

The town has developed in the years a sufficient array of organizations and 
fraternities. Its twenty-five include a Masonic lodge, two lodges ^nd an encamp- 
ment of the orders of the Odd Fellows, a division of the Ancient Order of Hiber- 
nians, a council of the Knights of Columbus, two lodges of the Knights of 
Pythias, two lodges of the New England Order of Protection, a lodge of the 
Ancient Order of United Workmen and two camps of the Jloderu Woodmen 
of the World. There are two temperance societies, the Branford Agricultural 
Society, the M. I. F. Benefit Association, Mason Rogers Post, G. A. R., and two 
social clubs, the Branford Home Club and the Saltonstall Club. 

Branford 's handsome Soldiers' monument, erected on the green in 188;'>, 
was provid(>d through the efforts of ]\Iason Rogers Post of the Grand Army of the 
Republic, which raised a fund of $5,000 for the purpose. It memorializes the 
soldiers who have fought for Branford in former wai-s, but there is a larger 
company serving the old town now. Branford had for several decades before the 
beginning of this war been the headquarters of a battery of the state's artil- 
lery, and this company went out with the others under Captain Carroll C. 
Hincks. 

Branford 's industries, says the statistician, are agriculture and the manufac- 
ture of malleable iron goods. When a single concern employs upward of a 
thousand men in a community of some 7,000 people, that covers a large part 
of the ground. Branford settlers were farmers at the start, but some of tlieui 
began to dabble in iron as early as 1655. They got the idea from the iron they 
found in the hills on the shore of Saltonstall. the noble lake on whose heights 
Governor Gurdon Saltonstall had his home in the colonial days. The iron miners, 
however, gave the name Furnace Pond to what had before that been Great 
Pond. 

But that wa.s only an incident. An iniinitesimal part of the tremendous 
weight of iron which Branford has used Has ever been mined in the town. Gone 
along with the iron mines are most of the primitive mills that used to be ou 
Beaver Brook. The Branford Lock Works, an industry established in 180f), 



336 A MODERN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN 

which fifty years later was the Squire & Parsons Manufacturing Company, has 
also disappeared. F. A. Holcomb, who later was a successful carriage manufac- 
turer in New Haven, began his industry in Branford in the 'sixties. Ten years 
later his factory was used for a while to make safes, but those also are of 
the past. So is the shipbuilding yard that used to be at Page's Point. Bran- 
ford's coasting trade is a memory, like the days when it was an important port 
of entrj", and home port for deep sea sailors. Practically all of Branford 's 
oysters are now raised at the Stony Creek side of the town. 

So it comes about that though Branford today does more manufacturing 
than ever before in its history, it is confined to two concerns. The beginning 
of the Malleable Iron Fittings Company was at Page's Point in 1855, when 
William II. Periy, William S. Kirkham, John and Samuel 0. Plant, William 
Blackstoue, Gurdon Bradley, David Beach and William Wadsworth estab- 
lished a factory for the production of malleable iron. It was Rogers & Had- 
ley afterward, but in 1864 the present corporation took hold, the far famed 
"M. I. F. Co." being formed. At that time the ofiScers were: President, J. J. 
Walworth; secretary and treasurer, E. C. Hammer; manager at Branford, 
T. F. Hammer; general sujierintendent, R. E. Hammer. 

Since then the business has developed enormously in size and even more in 
variety. In the heart of Branford,. where railroad communication is most coji- 
venient, has been created a model of American manufacturing efficiency. It 
has made the significant name of Hammer the slogan of Branford. Without, 
the factor}' is an adornment to Branford. Within, it is a dynamo of produc- 
tion, a magical transformer of the labor of the towai into an almost endless 
variety of useful "fittings" of malleable iron. It is a technical array of product, 
but the initiated reckon by signs they can understand that it is mighty excel- 
lent. The firm employs in all its departments considerably in excess of 1,000 
people, and the business is rapidly growing. 

The company is at present capitalized at $125,000, and its officers are : 
President, A. C. Walworth ; secretary, J. J. Nichols ; treasurer and general man- 
ager, Alfred E. Hammer; superintendent of pipe fittings, Valdemar T. Hammer. 

Branford 's other going manufacturing concern is the Atlantic Wire Com- 
pany, maker of iron and steel wire. It was established in Branford in 1906 
with a capital of .$25,000, and employs between fifty and 100 men. Its officers 
are W. E. Hitchcock, president and treasurer; M. F. Hope, secretary. 

In strange contrast, this hive of industry is, for a part of the year, also the 
abode of the supremest leisure. Branford 's shore, all the way from Short 
Beach to Little Harbor, is a delight to the lover of the sea. It has a coast of 
infinite variety, indented with creeks and bays, fringed with romantic and rocky 
islands, a never failing mine of joy and treasure. As far back as 1852 wayfarers 
from far found it, and now dwellers in Branford and New Haven and the 
four corners of the earth come to seek its summer paradise. Short Beach, 
Double Beach. Branford Point, Indian Neck and Pine Orchard are a few of 









V. 




CHAPTER XXXVI 
STONY CREEK 

THE UNIQUE SHORE EES0K11, THE CENTER OF THE QUARRY INDUSTRY, THE OYSTElt 
PRODUCING VILLAGE WHICH IS A PART OF THE TOWN OF BRANFORD 

For many years the white settlers of Branford dwelt in harmony with the 
Indian neighbors from whom the land had been acquired, £ind it may be that 
one of the reasons for the harmony was a tacit division of the land. The early 
settlers gravitated to some stream. The whites took the mouth of that river 
that rises in the heights of Totoket, and most of their habitations, for many 
years after the settlement, were along the New Haven side of it, near its mouth. 
To their Indian allies they left another and smaller stream — the "stony creek" 
that enters the Sound near what is now the southeastern boundary of Bran- 
ford. Verily it was a stony creek. Born of one branch in the heights of 
western Guilford, of another in the meadows of southeastern Branfoi'd, it 
flowed over a rocky bed to the sea. Around it for two miles up from its mouth 
are ledges of what looked to the farmer like valueless rock, but its bed and 
the shores east and west of where it meets the Sound were and are a treasure 
ground of sea food. Fish, but more especially clams and oysters, had, to judge 
from the shell-piles, abounded there for centuries before the white man first 
viewed the land. 

Long before that it seems to have been the happy hunting ground of the 
Indian. All the proilucts of that chase by which he lived were there in profu- 
.sion. Wild fowl were in its sedgj- creeks and inlets and on its meadows. Deer 
and the smaller animals were found there and nearby. His eye for nature's 
beauties was not as ours, but that romantic group of islands which lies just 
oflf the coa.st did not fail to appeal to him, and around their shores, in his hunt- 
ing trips, he may frequently have ventured in his light canoe. 

The rocky stream and what lies near it, the supplies of food and those same 
"Thimble Islands," make the modem Stony Creek. For all Stony Creek is 
divided, like Caesar's Gaul, into three parts, its quarries, its oyster business 
and its summer shore and hotel business. Of the features that make these, prob- 
ably the islands first attracted attention. There are about twenty-five of "the 
Thimbles," counting the islands to which a house might cling, and they are old 
in storj' and tradition. The attention of the earliest settlers of Branford was 
drawn to them from the tale that Captain Kidd, who scurried through the 

338 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 339 

Sound more or less iu the first half eeutui-j' of Branford's existence, had buried 
some of his ill-gotten gains on the island which afterward came to be called 
"Money Island." Some of the first settlers handed down the st«ry that they had 
seen him there ; some had even talked with him. The legend that he buried any 
treasure in the vicinity is little credited now; it is entirely possible that the 
pirate may have stoppd one or more times for shelter or supplies in some of the 
numerous island harbors. 

But there are the islands, and they have treasures exceeding any of which 
Kidd ever dreamed. They have a beauty of natural scenery, a .romance of 
variety, a fascination of sun and storm and sea of many moods, that never cease 
to draw and hold, and in these days jaded humans come from far for their 
restoration and rest. Long years ago, as a pioneer, Captain William O'Brien 
bought Pot Island, and erected a house there. Now there is hardly an island 
big enough to give foundation to a dwelling that has not one or more of summer 
habitations, while some of them have been transformed by wealth and art into 
summer fairj'lands. Their path of the sea is a free highway, and the boatman 
or the canoeist may find increasing joy in cruising about their labyrinth. They 
are largely responsible for a company of pilgi'ims as large or sometimes larger 
than the credited population of Stony Creek, that annually visits cottages or 
hotels or boarding places on Stony Creek shore or in the village. 

The chief of these hotels is at Indian Point, the Indian Point House, now 
owned by Mrs. Martha C. Maynard and conducted by her daughter, Mrs. 
Charles Madiera, and her husband. The Three Elms House, just inshore from 
this, is owned by Mrs. Maynard, and was formerly luider the same management. 
In the village are the Brainard House, a summer hotel, and the Bay View Inn, 
an all-the-year house. At Flying Point there is the Plying Point Hotel, and 
at Money Island the Harbor View and Money Island hotels. 

The story of Stony Creek's quariy industry, which makes the abiding sul)- 
stance of the village, is a storj' of the settlement itself. As a portion of the 
Branford agi-icultural community — there is some good farm land to the north- 
west of the village — it began very early. There is pretty definite record of the 
settlement there, as a pioneer in 1671, of Francis Norton. There were Nortons 
among the original settlers from New Haven, and the presumption is that he came 
from tliat way. But William Leete, who appeared to the eastward of him only 
two years later, undoubtedly came from Guilford. In the company of others 
who came soon after are the names of Richard Butler, farmer, Abraham and 
William Hoadlej', Frisbie, Barker, Palmer, Ilowd, Rogers and Rockwell. 

So they spread all over the southeastern part, of the town, and increased. 
By 1788 there were so many that Stony Creek, as it seems to have been called 
almost from the first, was made a school district. Not all of the settlers were 
farmers ; some were fishermen. Still others were sailors, some of them on deep 
waters. Stony Creek shared with Branford, for a good part of the nineteentli 
century, the prosperity and distinction of a Sound coasting port. 

No doubt the early settlers had some hazy notion that Stony Creek's stones 



340 A MODERN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN 

were valuable, but it was not adequate. They lived on through the eighteenth 
and nearly half of the nineteenth centuries mostly by farming and fishing, hav- 
ing little conception of the broader commercial possibilities that lay in their 
land and ott' their shoi-e. For oysteriug was in those days no more than a local 
industry, if it was any industry at all. The coming of the Shore Line railroad, 
about 1850, was the beginning of Stony Creek's awakening. Before this, no 
doubt, the people had realized something of the value of the stone that was in 
their ledges, but there was no market for it at hand, and no means of transporfc- 
ing it to far markets. The railroad changed all tliat, and the outsiders who 
came with it were not long in discovering the quarry possibilities of the place. 
They did not for some time, however, realize the high quality or rare value of 
Stony Creek's peculiar granite deposits. 

There were, soon after 1850, some operations for the quarrying of the stone. 
Most important was that of B. 6. Green, who in 1858 developed a quarry and 
operated it for al)out fifteen years, employing at one time as many as fifty men. 
But the first operation on a large scale seems to have been that of John Beattie. 
Stony Creek was not to have the credit of his work, however. He commenced 
quarrying at the far eastern conier of the village in 1870, and finding a good 
quality of stone, did an extensive business. But that district was set off to 
Leete's Island in Guilford in 1882, and all of the extensive Beattie work has 
gone for a Guilford industry. 

In 1875 the fii'st strictly local operation was commenced on the east side 
of the town, about a mile north of the railroad. A superior vein of stone was 
discovered, which seems to have been largely responsible for making widely 
famous the Stony Creek product. A few years later granite from this quarry 
was used in a part of the construction of the capitol buildings at Hartford and 
at Albany, New York. A system of spur tracks was laid from this plant down 
to the railroad. Tlie necessity for this was largely obviated when in 1893 the 
course of the railroad through Stony Creek was moved farther northward. 

The quarry business still conducted under their name was established in 
1S88 by the Norcross Brothers of Worcester. Here a superior product was 
found, and a corporation with a quarter of a million dollars of capital now em- 
ploys several hundred men in the getting out of finished stone. It is red granite 
of an especially beautiful variety which is produced at this quarry. 

The following year a concern known as the Branford Granite Company, but 
said to have been financed largely by Brooklyn capital, opened a quarry on the 
west side of the creek. It employed at one time from 100 to 150 men, but this 
business has been absorbed by the two quarry companies which survive. 

The other of these besides Norcross Brothers is the Stony Creek Red Granite 
Company, organized by Samuel Babeock of Middletown. It has found abun- 
dance of a high class granite, and does a prosperous business. There was for- 
merly still another quarry industry, which flourished for a time, the Totoket 
Granite Company, which found a handsome grade of pink granite. 

But though the number of individual concerns has diminished. Stony Creek's 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 341 

quarrj' intlustry was never so prosperous as now, and every year finds the supe- 
rior quality and workmanship of its product more widely known. The stone 
taken out here is of brilliant beauty, and much of it takes a high polish. It has 
been in high favor especially for monumental purposes where miusual attrac;- 
tiveness is desired, while for buildiug purposes the gray and white granite of 
Stony Creek goes, in quantities of hundreds of tons, all over the country. 

Even more famous are Stony Creek oysters. Long ago the oyster industry 
ceased to be a simple matter of raking up oysters from the sea bed, culling 
them and placing them on the market. But that Stony Creek has kept up with 
the times and the science of growing oysters the reputation of the bivalves 
bearing the name of the village proves. They go all over the country, and com- 
mand the high prices of the product that has fame. The largest gi-ower and 
dealer is the Stony Creek Oyster Company, with a capital of $42,000, of which 
Henry I. Lewis is president, Maud H. Smith secretary and Frank E. Smith 
treasurer. Charles E. Smith, of Flying Point, is another large gi'ower and 
dealer. 

Stony Creek has a somewhat distinct community life. In 1874 it was made 
the second voting district of Branford, the territoi-y included being about a mile 
and a half square. It has had, as noted, its own church for over half a century. 
Even its shore and summer places seem to be its own, and though there is no 
rivalry with the town which includes it, Stony Creek has a certain individuality. 
It is prosperous through certain highly developed industries. Little farming 
industry is included within its district now, most of that being of the market, 
garden variety, to supply those who cannot farm for tliemselves, or the summer 
visitors. Tlie latter make Stony Creek, for nearly six months of the year, a 
very busy place. The population of the hotels and cottages, the shore and the 
increasingly inhabited islands, makes use, in the season, of all the resources 
the village can supply. 

From two directions terminating trolleys have had considerable effect on 
Stony Creek. The line from New Haven, now a part of the Connecticut Com- 
pany's system, came through Branford and to the eastern side of Stony Creek 
late in the 'nineties. This makes a very close connection with Branford, with 
all the shore places, with New Haven. It has helped not a little in Stony Creek's 
prosperity. From the other direction, the Shore Line Electric Railway Company 
built in 1910 a branch line from the center of Guilford by the shore route almost 
to Stony Creek village. It was the intention, or so it was announced, to have 
these lines connect, and make a continuous shore route from New Haven to 
Guilford, but the thing has never been done. 



CHAPTER XXXVII 
HAMDEN 

TOWN OF MANY PARTS TFIAT ALMOST SURROUNDS NEW HAVEN, ANCIENT PLACE OF 
MANUFACTURES, MODERN SUBURBAN AND AGRICULTURAL TOWN 

It is not true that from New Haven "all roads lead to Hamden," but the 
traveler who would not find it so must avoid at least four of the principal high- 
ways leading from the city, three of the street railway lines and one of the rail- 
roads. For that reason it seems to envelop New Haven, though that is mostly 
a seeming. Stretching to the north, the northwest and somewhat to the north- 
cast of the smaller town of New Haven is a long, broad, rambling town of 
thirty-two square miles. It is over eight miles from its southern to its northern 
point. In width at its broadest point it is six miles. Topographically it is oth- 
erwise peculiar. From its far northwestern corner, a point which seems to the 
Now Havener unexplored territory, where the southwestern point of a height 
known in Cheshire as Mount Sanford juts into the town, its boundary rambles 
now southwest and then southeast until it strikes the West Rock ridge, to which 
it adheres as a magnet to a piece of soft steel, until it comes upon Pine Rock, a 
modest height of 271 feet. Then, as if warned that it must not pass, it stops 
short, and leaves West Rock for New Haven. 

At the northeast, it was ordained that Hamden should contain all ef the 
]\Iourit Carmel range — the boundary maker saw to that. Its eastern line shoots 
southeast until the Quinnipiae River stops it. Then, as if somebody had been 
too greedy, it tunis repentantly and sharply west again. It hesitatingly 
meanders until it finds Mill River, when it seems to feel at home. For it follows 
the river in its cour.se until it is lost in lower Lake Whitney. Perhaps, in the 
days before the inventive Yankee made dams to stop the water to turn his 
wheels, there was no lake there. If so, at that corner also the line was halted 
by a warning eminence. For in the far southeastern corner of Hamden is Mill 
Rock, a 225-foot eminence that is a sort of advance guard of commanding East 
Rock — and that also is left to New Haven. 

All the way down through Haniden flows Mill River, giving it beauty and 
power. Mountains are its corner stones. All over it rise the everlasting hills. 
These also break it, in these da.vs, into communities. Some of these the city has 
made. Following Dixwell Avenue, one finds closely built city streets all the 
way, and knows not when he leaves the bounds of New Haven. But some differ- 

342 



■fir- 




^\A"m 



^^ 




A.MKKKAX MILLS (ilMI'ANV. CKXTKKNILLE 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 343 

ence in pavements or sidewalks catches his eye, and inquiring, he is told that he 
is in Highwood. And Highwood is a part of Hamden. Dixwell Avenue stiU 
runs on for three miles, and so, seemingly, does the city, on through what used 
to be called Hamden Plains, but is now called a part of Highwood. A great 
manufacturing district has grown up here almost in the heart of Hamden, 
attracted by the presence of the Northampton or "Canal" tracks of the New 
Haven Railroad, now largely a freight line. It is the line of least resistance 
for the expansion of New Haven, and has a great future as a suburb. 

To the northwest of this is a section of scattered farms, enclosing the 
" North we.st" or •'Dunbar" school district, down on the official list as "No. 12." 
This takes in the wildest and least settled portion of the town, but it is a section 
interesting in its diversity, fascinating in its natural scenery. It is a region of 
farms, but much of it is still untamed woodland. 

This takes in also the central northern section of the town, though that is 
naturally separated from it. This is a land of long distances, with high hills 
and rough country, woodlands and farms between. Here in these days farming 
takes mostly the form of raising milk for the nearby city, and neighboi*s are 
far apart. 

But leaving New Haven by another course, one finds himself, near its edge, 
in the city of the Winchester factories. Treading softly past them, for they are 
filled with high explosives in these days, he finds himself in another quarter of 
Hamden. This is Highwood, too, but on the east side of the railroad — between 
the railroad and the river. Here are smaller farms, market gardening plots, 
but mostly they are the suburban places of factory workers. This is a point 
midway between Hamden Plains and Whitneyville. 

Or most likely the wayfarer reaches Hamden by following Whitney Avenue. 
One knows where this street begins, but is not sure where it ends. It is Whit- 
ney Avenue, surely, from the point where Church Street divides in New Haven. 
It goes on and on, past some of the finest of New Haven residences, past Lake 
Whitney, over the bridge, and on toward the open country. It is Whitney 
Avenue in Centerville. It surely is in Mount Carmel. They say it is in Cheshire. 
It may also be the road to Milldale. 

But as soon as one leaves New Haven by this route he finds himself in one 
of the most interesting sections of Hamden, another point where the city has 
overflowed. This is a pleasant suburban community by the lake, made up almost 
entirely, in these days, of the homes of New Haveners. Nevertheless, it has a 
somewhat distinct community life. There is no sign of factory activity except 
that in the very edge of the city, a little further on, as the trolley runs, there is a 
lively spot. A mile or a little more above the bridge, just before one enters 
Centerville, looms up the considerable factorv' of the American Mills Company, 
Hamden branch. And then comes Centerville. 

This is not the center of the town. It really is on the far eastern edge of it. 
But it is the official "capital," so to speak, of the group of villages which make 
up Hamden. Here are the Town Hall and some stores and one of the principal 



344 A MODERN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN 

eliurches. Here is an important crossroads. For this is the point where, after 
much wandering, Dixwell Avenue meets Whitney. 

A mile and a half further on Mount Carmel begins. In effect, and seemingly 
by right, this is a town by itself. It ha.s its center, too, which some call Ives- 
ville, where there are the postoffice and some stores. The avenue proceeds 
placidly on, lined with some of the fine old houses which remind of ilount 
Carmel 's early history, on past the mountain, and presently is lost in Clieshire. 

Such is a glimpse of the Hamden of today. Many of its prominent char- 
acteristics are of recent growth. It is compact and homogeneous compared with 
the Hamden of twenty-five years ago. What must it have been, then, when 132 
years ago Hamden was carved out of the tract of original "greater New 
Haven?" It did not include Mount Carmel, even then, but Mount Carmel, 
already established in a sort of independence, was for reasons of convenience 
annexed to the new town. It was named, we may suppose, from John Hamp- 
den, the English patriot. Its spelling was loyal to him for a time, but conven- 
ience triumphed over accuracy early in the town's history. 

The lower part of Hamden was formed, doubtless, by that same overrunning 
from New Haven which is evident today. The New Haven colonists knew no 
town limits, however. It was in New Haven that they built their first dam 
across Jlill River in 1686, though that was in what is now the territory of the 
Town of Hamden. It was not in New Haven that Eli Whitney established his 
famous factory, as a matter of strict geography, but in Hamden. Whitneyville, 
of course, was named from him, and the Whitney name was carried up through 
all the eastern side of the town. But in those days the Indian.s still roamed the 
western and northern portions of the town, and being peaceful Indians, they 
were permitted to dwell there for some time afterward. But the fine farming 
possibilities, even there, were too attractive to be missed, and the white man 
prevailed over all the town pretty soon after the opening of the nineteenth 
century. 

Not only is the early development of the cotton gin and of firearms manu- 
facture in America traced to Hamden, but there were found the progenitors 
of another indu.stry. Stephen Goodyear was one of the settlers of Hamden, 
probably long before it was set off from New Haven. It was from his line that 
Charles Goodyear, who made the name forever identified with the rubber 
industr.y, came, though he did not come from Hamden. Daniel Gilbert was one 
of the early settlers in the southern portion of the town. Caleb and Abraham 
Ailing were early identified with the upper part of that section called the 
"Plains," and the latter, though not a minister, acted as the first pastor of the 
Hamden East Plains, now the Whitneyville, church. Fi-om them came Hobart 
Ailing of a later time, and his son Theodore. In that same section were the 
Benhams, whose descendants are still found in the we.stem part of the town. 
The Warners mu.st have early appeared in that section, and penetrated to the 
far northern and northwestern borders of the town, for now they are found 
there and in Highwood. Other families of note in the earlier and later davs 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 345 

were Mix and Ford, Simeon Bristol and his descendants. In Mount Carmel, 
whose origins will be traced later, many of these settlers were pilgrims from 
the North Haven district, and the relation of ]\Iount Carmel, in the early and 
even in the later times, was closer to North Haven than to the settlers from New 
Haven way. 

Not only were the farming possibilities of Hamden attractive from the time 
of its first discovery, but it had something of the lure of a possible El Dorado. 
Geologically, as has been indicated, Hamden is highly interesting. The whole 
region, from the gateway between Mount Sanford and Blount Carmel, is the 
bed of a huge prehistoric river, of which tlie little brook. Mill River, is the 
main remainder now. Through that gap, which shows now the width of 800 
feet, mighty floods poured to the plains below. At this point, no doubt, there 
was a waterfall that, if we had it in our day, would cause us to marvel less at 
Niagara. The result of the action of this water is seen in our time in numerous 
bowls and depressions all over the ^Mount Carmel and Hamden district, idly 
wondered at by the many, studied luiderstandingly by the geologists. 

And there were the mild mineral deposits which usually accompany an in- 
teresting geological district. Copper lias been mined on Mount Carmel, though 
not in any profitable quantities. Iron and feldspar were found at other points. 
The only profitable mineral workings in the town today are the trap rock quar- 
ries at Mount Carmel, York ^Mountain and Pine Rock, and these are not com- 
plained of as lacking in reward for their workers. 

From the beginning Hamden has sliown a sharp but not unfamiliar contrast 
of the agricultural and the industrial, as it does more and more of the urban 
and rural. The stream, as we have seen, early attracted the manufacturer. 
The Whitney industries, succeeding the older grist mill, early gave way to tlie 
beginnings of the Winchester Repeating Arms Company. Later that site came 
into the hands of the Acme Wire Company, and there was established one of 
the strongest of the younger manufacturing institutions of the locality. It was 
not reckoned, however, a Hamden institution, for few recognized that the line 
between New Haven and Hamden came so far south of the lake. But when in 
1913 it outgrew the quarters at the head of the lake and settled on Hamden 
Plains, it was surely known to be in Hamden. Here it has a large, new and 
modern factory, and is conducting one of tlie most important manufacturing 
plants in the region of New Haven. 

This section of Hamden Plains is in these times the real manufacturing part 
of Hamden. Some years before this the Mayo Radiator Company, which makes 
radiators for a good share of the gasoline motor cars of the country, built a 
large modern factory in the space between Dixwell Avenue and the Canal Rail- 
road at the corner of Putnam Avenue. The Acme Wire Works came in just 
above. In January of 1918 the Marlin-Roekwell Corporation, the second gi-eat 
munitions industry which the war had created in New Haven, started a factory 
400 by 140 feet just south of the Mayo Radiator factory. It was to be completed 
by March 15, and an enterprising contracting firm blasted the excavation for 



346 A MODERN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN 

it out of an earth four feet deep in frost, laid its foundations in tlie hardest 
winter in fifty years, and finished the building, a monument to American de- 
termination and speed, in contract time. In that same vicinity the Economy 
Concrete Company has a plant. The Whitney-Blake Manufacturing Company, 
makers of electric fittings, has just moved out from the eity to a large new 
factory, making another of a notable group of concerns. 

Augurville, on the bank of Mill River a mile below Centerville, got its name 
in the middle of the last century from its manufacture of boring tools. There 
in 1843 Willis Churchill established a factory, whose operator ten years later 
was the Willis Churchill Manufacturing Company. In 1863 it was W. A. Ives 
& Company, and in 1889 it was the Haraden Manufacturing Company. Then 
Henry P. Shares, Charles I. and Jared Benhara acquired it. At that time it 
employed about sixty men, and for some years later remained a prasperous 
concern. Gradually, however, it diminished, and now has entirely disappeared. 

New Haven claims Charles Goodyear. It also claims the facton- which 
for more than half a century has been making rubber goods under his 'pat- 
ent. But both are really of Hamdeu origin. The first factory of Leverette 
Candee used water power, and it was on Mill River just below Centen'ille. It 
was established in 1843, and operated there for twenty years. Then it moveil 
to New Haven. 

In 1863 Bela Maun and others acquired this factory and established there 
a textile business, which in 1865 became the property of the New Haven Web 
Company, and was operated under that name for nearly fifty years, prospering 
and extending its facilities. It had one of the most important water privileges 
on the river, and made the most of it. In 1915 it was ac(|uired by the American 
Mills Company, which a year or two later erected a new factory at the corner 
of Orange Avenue and Front Street in Allingtown, on the far side of New- 
Haven, retaining the old factory as its "Hamden Branch." 

The manufacture of bricks was known in Hamden as early as 1645, promoted 
by capitalists from New Haven. The red clay which is the mother earth of much 
of Hamden is well adapted for this product, but as the years have pa.ssed the 
center of the brick making industry has gravitated toward North Haven, and 
today there is ven^ little brick making anywhere in Hamden. 

A mile up the river from the web factory the Clark silk mills were estab- 
lished as early as 1875 by R. S. Clark, who before that had been making bells 
at this spot. It was a prosperous industry for a time, but some time ago most 
of the traces of it disappeared. 

At Centerville the J. T. Heniy Manufacturing Company has a factory 
where it makes pruning shears and hardware of similar nature. The W. F. 
Gibbs Manufacturing Company makes organ stop knobs at a plant on Central 
Avenue. The old factory of the Acme Wire Company at the very edge of New 
Haven, the historic side of the old Eli Whitney Works, is now occupied by 
the Sentinel Manufacturing Company and the Sentinel Auto Gas Appliances 
Company, which make gas stoves and soldering and iron heaters. 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 347 

In Hamden. aside from Mount Carmel, are four churches. The oldest of these 
is the Congregational Church at Whitueyville, or, as it was called when the 
church was organized in 1795, "Hamden East Plains." In those days the 
"Plains"' extended much farther east than now, and the .settlers in the western 
part of the town thought it not too far to come over to the east side to church. 
Abraham Ailing served as the pastor of this church for its first twenty-five years. 
He was not educated as a minister, but he was a man of zeal and power, and 
the people heard him gladly. He did a quarter century of real foundation work. 
The present church building was erected in 1834. For fifty years from 1838 
Rev. Austin Putnam was its pastor, and under him the church grew with the 
growing community. In the later period it has had various pastors, among them 
Rev. Charles F. Clarke, now practicing law in New Haven.. The pastor since 
1912 has been Rev. Adam R. Lutz, who is leading its people in a notable service 
to one of the most rapidlj' growing of New Haven's suburbs. 

Grace Church, Episcopal, in Centerville, dates from 1790. One of its early 
rectors was Rev. Charles W. Everest, who later established in the near vicinity 
the Rectory School. One of the most distinguished rectors the church has had 
was Rev. Joseph Brewster, father of Bishop Chauncey B. Brewster, who had 
charge of it for two years following 1881, when he retired from his thirty years' 
service with Christ Church of New Haven. He was its rector again from 1892 
to 1894. At present Rev. Albert C. Jones is rector. 

The ^Methodist Church at Hamden Plains was founded in 1834. It long served 
as a communit.y center, until the pushing out of city life, and the establishment 
of a large factory district in the vicinity, materially changed the character of 
the community. The somewhat forbidding piece of architecture which had served 
as a church building for half a century was de,stro}'ed by fire in 1917, and just 
at present the church is making shift with Ladies Aid hall. 

The Catholic Church at Highwood was established about 1890, and one of its 
first pastors was Rev. John T. Winters, who was a member of the Hamden 
Board of Ediication in 1894 and several years following, and a man highly re- 
spected by tlie whole town. The church is in a rapidly growing suburb, and does 
an excellent work. The present pastor is Rev. W. Kiernan. 

Hamden has for some years past farsightedly met its school problems, which 
are intensified by the rapid growth of such sections as Highwood and Whituey- 
ville. Its outlying district schools, though under the same difficulties as district 
schools in other towns, are kept up to a good standard, while some of the new 
buildings near the city, notably the ones recently built on Church Street in 
Hamden Plains and on Putnam Avenue in Whitneyville, are the equal of any in 
the city. Hamden provides New Haven high school facilities for its children. 

There have been .some excellent private schools in the town, among them the 
Rectory School, which in the days of Mr. Everest and Mr. Raymond who succeeded 
him was an excellent military school for boys. Hamden Hall, conducted by J. P. 
Cushing, formerly principal of the New Haven High school, is an institution of 
high class. 



CHAPTER XXXVIII 
MOUNT CARMEL 

THE IXDEPENDENTLY FOUNDED AND DISTINGUISHED SECTION OF HAMDEN THAT LIES 
IN THE SHADOW OF THE FAMOUS OLD "SLEEPING GIANT " 

Leagues off, the contour of his massive head 

Stands boldly out against the azure sky ; 
He lies serenely in his roek-bound bed, 

While rippling streamlets pass him swiftly by. 

From many city streets, his distant outline 

Touches the vision with delicious thrill. 
And longing fancies eagerly incline 

Your footsteps onward to his dreamy hill. 

— Charles G. Merriman, "The Sleeping Giant." 



The highest point of land anywhere along the Connecticut shore is that brief 
range of near-mountains which stretches from east to west across a part of the 
northern end of the town of Hamden, and gives name to that distinct community 
known as Mount Carmel. Known to older people in former days as the "Blue 
Hills," it has caught the imagination of the younger generation as "The Sleep- 
ing Giant." It is no mere name of fancy. From far out at sea the voyager, 
catching the first view of Connecticut shore as it rises in higher background to 
low-lying Long Island, sees the plain contour of a reclining giant of the hills, 
sleeping his sleep of centuries. Or the traveler by land, as he rounds the top of 
higher eminences to the north, and "gets his first view of the broad, blue Sound, 
finds lying at his feet the landmark so familiar to New Haven and the region 
'round about. From ]\Iount Tom and its vicinity, from many a commanding 
height to the far north, this .southern Connecticut eminence, showing distinctly 
on unusually clear days, is known if not familiar. 

New Haven, as one approaches it from the water, is easily known by its East 
and West rocks. But always looming to the north, double their height, grand in 
his rude beauty, inspiring in his unchanging rest, is the faithful giant in his age- 
long sleep. To nature lovers of all the country around he is dear, and to not a 

348 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 349 

few who have made his closer acquaintance he has an increasing- and unending 
charm. 

It is not surprising that this challenging height should liave attracted the 
first adventurers from the New Haven colony on beyond the plains of Hamden, 
to make their homes beneath its shadow. Faithful readers of the old Scriptures, 
fired by the holy faith which led on the heroic prophets of old Israel, the first 
settlers saw here a New World height which appealed to their imagination like 
the historic mount where Elijah fought his great fight with the prophets of Baal, 
and won the victory for truth and righteousness. So they called it ;\Iount Carmel, 
and Mount Carmel it has remained to this day. 

This probably was not until some time after the beginning of the eighteenth 
century. Venturesome pioneers had much earlier than that gone out from the 
shelter of the New Haven stockade, but what became Mount Carmel was ten 
miles from the Market Place, and that was a long journey into the wilderness. 
Whether or not he was the first, there is authentic record that Daniel Bradley 
made the plunge in 1730. He seems to have come from toward the center of 
the colony, though we know that earlier than this New Haven colonists had 
€Stablished themselves in North Haven as neighbors to Mount Carmel. Perhaps 
a good many of those who came to join Bradley in the early days of his venture 
came across from North Haven, but however that may be, by 1757 there" were 
settlers enough in Jlount Carmel to earn for it a colonial charter. The granting 
of this made I\Iount Carmel the earliest recognized part of the town of Hamden, 
and justifies the estimate of it as a distinct connnunity, although it has since 
1786, when the latter was chartered, been a constituent part of Hamden. 

It was a noble, sturdy company of pioneers who came with or followed 
hard after Bradley. From their records in the countrj- churchyards could be 
written an elegy as noble as that of Gray. ]Most of them are names that live still 
in Mount Carmel parish ; all of them are names that have made and still make 
Connecticut or wider history. The foundations laid by Daniel, Joel, Amasa, 
Sterling and Horace Bradley: Amos, Joseph and Henry Peck; Roderick and 
Ezra Kimberly ; Nathaniel Tuttle and his descendants ; Ithamar, Job and Simeon 
Todd ; the successive Jonathan and later John Dickermaus and a goodly group 
of their associates stand firm, and on them rests a citizenship that makes Mount 
Carmel of today, in addition to its many natural advantages, a most desirable 
place of residence. 

II 

At foundation ^Mount Carmel has been and remains chiefly a farming com- 
munity. But it ha.s had its manufacturing institutions. Some of them are of 
the past, and ruins mark their sites. Mill River near its source, as it did near 
the point where it enters New Haven, early tempted those who knew the pos- 
sibilities of water power. Where else did it get its name, indeed, than from the 
mills which, from the earlv eighteenth centurv until now have marked its banks 



350 A MODERN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN 

all the way from "The Steps" at .Mount Carmel to the head of New Haven 
harbor? There are traditions, doubtless founded on fact, but lacking definite 
record, of mills for the grinding and drying of corn and other grains, for the 
sawing of lumber and the making of cloth at "The Steps." There the second 
dam across Mill River was built, the first being that erected for New Haven's 
town grist mill before 1686, where later Eli Whitney established his first factory. 
The Mount Carmel dam started a scries of industries, all of which are now gone. 
They were, in something like their order, a grist mill, a mill for fulling cloth, 
and later the Mount Carmel Axle Works. This in turn was succeeded by the 
Liberty Cartridge Company, whose factory was destroyed by fire in 1916, since 
which time the sound of wheels turned by water at that spot has given place 
altogether to the grind of the stone crusher, as it eats relentlessly into the head 
of the old Giant. This last, an industry operated by outside owners, is one in 
which Mount Carmel does not especially rejoice. 

One manufacturing industry, ilount Carmel's substantial and surviving one, 
remains at the central point known as Ive.sville. That is the brass and iron 
specialties factory of Walter W. Woodruff & Sons, founded in 1835 and enjoying 
good prosperity. Another foundry, located on Whitney Avenue in the upper 
part of Ivesville. never depended on water power, but was to avail itself of the 
transportation facilities of that wonderful canal which was opened in 1825 from 
Farmington to New Haven, and caused more or less commotion in cutting its 
way through Mount Carmel. That was the factory of the Mount Carmel Bolt 
Company. It had some years of prospei'ity, but was succeeded later by various 
occupants of its factory up to nearly 1900, when it was mostly abandoned, ex- 
cept for a brief time when the Strouse Corset Company of New Haven tried to 
ruti it as a branch corset factory, but found it too disjoined from the main plant 
and from the city. Another stone crusher plant is located on York ilountain, 
west of Whitney Avenue, just below the plant which on the other side of the 
street is eating into the mountain itself, and from these two plants hundreds of 
tons of pulverized trap rock weekly go to serve for highways and cement con- 
struction to New Haven and the regions about it. 

Mount Carmel has been a thoroughfare for a century. It is on the way to 
the important town of Cheshire, and through it to Southington, new Britain 
and Farmington. It is one of the routes to Waterbury. So it was that as early 
as 1722 there was what is called a "path" running through the town somewhat 
northward. It had to get over a real obstacle in that region between what is 
now the Mount Carmel trolley station and the southern boundary of Cheshire. 
Where the modern traveler by steam roads, by trolley or by motor car bowls 
along over a level highway, there was, when the eighteenth century came in 
and for some years thereafter, a rock-ribbed continuation of the head of the old 
Giant westward toward the range that leads down to West Rock. Dynamite 
was unknown. Road building at that time followed the line of least resistance 
when it could, the line of greatest effoi't when it must. In this case the makers 
of the "path" climbed. Trap rock, which is the foundation of that obstacle. 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 351 

naturally shaped itself into steps. The travelers over that path at the first, on 
foot or on horseback, got over the declivity by following a natural stairway as 
hazardous, perhaps, as that down which Israel Putnam dared the redcoats to 
follow liim at Horseneck in 1779. A little later, in 1798, when a turnpike was 
built over which chaises could go, the trap rock was drilled out a little, the grade 
made easier and th^ steps were tilled in with gravel to make some sort of a high- 
way, but the traveler who navigated it must have felt that he earned his passage 
without having to give up tlie additional tribute which the toll keeper collected 
a little further down. 

Since then, things have happened to ■"The Steps," as tradition still calls 
the spot. Tlie makers of the Farmington Canal, of whii-h we have already 
learned, came along in 182.5 or a little earlier, and blasted a waterway through. 
This was not sufficient, however, for the New Haven & Noi'thampton Railroad 
Company, for its "cut" through the ledge in 1882 is the best evidence we have 
today of what a real obstacle it was. Still later, in 1902, and again when the 
cement state highway was built in 1914, it was found necessary to smooth fur- 
tlier this rough place. The resiilt is that today there is no evidence that the 
average traveler notices of the, ancient hurdle. 

The turnpike remained a "toll line" up to 1850, despite the almost constant 
struggles of Blount Carmel citizens, in the half century previous, to get it re- 
moved. Meanwhile the canal had had its brief day and ceased to be. There was 
a period of over twenty years after that when they needed a free highway, for 
it was the only means of travel through Jlount Carmel northward. The railroad 
came about 1849 — that railroad which will be known as "the Canal road" to the 
end of the chapter, no doubt. Its passenger carrying function, as concerned 
Mount Carmel and Cheshire, largely passed with the opening of the New Haveu- 
Waterbury trolley about 1904, and in 1917 the road became almost exclusively 
a freight line. 

Two churches serve the religious needs of ^loinit Carmel in these days. The 
first is of that type which came with the foundations of most of oiir New England 
communities. The Congregational Church was established in 1757, and gave 
being to the Mount Carmel parish. It has pur.sued the even tenor of its way in 
the centuries since, being served by men of devotion and power. Some of the 
more notable of its later pastors are the Rev. Jason Noble Pierce, who went from 
it to the Davenport Church of New Haven, thence to Oberlin, Ohio, and is now 
pastor of the Second Congregational Church of Dorchester, Mass. ; the Rev. Harris 
E. Starr, who was called from Mount Carmel to Pilgi-im Church of New Haven, 
and is now exalting the service and salvation of the Cro.ss "somewhere in 
France"; the Rev. Frederick T. Persons, who, called from the Woodbridge Church 
in 1911, went after three years' pastorate at Mount Carmel to be librarian at 
the Bangor Theological Seminary ; and the Rev. William G. Lathrop, who suc- 
ceeded Mr. Persons, coming from Shelton, Conn., and still serves the church, an 
inspiring pastor and teacher. The church edifice stands on a historic spot in 
the pleasantest part of the village, substantially where there has been a church 



352 A MODERN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN 

building from the first. Next to it on the south is the oldest house now standing 
in :iIount Carmel or Hamden, built by the Rev. Nathaniel Sherman. He was 
pastor of the church from 1769 to 1772, and the building of the house occupied 
nearly all of his pastorate. It has not been used as a parsonage for many years, 
though it is in an excellent state of preservation. The present church edifice was 
completed about 1835. In 1912, in the pastorate of the Rev. Harris E. Starr, 
and largely through his well directed efforts, the commodious and well equipped 
parish house was built adjoining the church on the north. 

The other church is St. Joseph's Roman Catholic, founded in 1852, and con- 
ducted, up to 1878, by priests from ^Yallingford. The present building was 
completed in 1890, and in the following year the Rev. John T. Winters was its 
pastor. The building is a dignified and attractive one, and the church serves 
the people of its faith and order in all Mount Carmel and its borders. It has 
had devoted and beloved leaders, but for the past eight years one who has won 
the respect and confidence not only of his people but of those of all faiths in the 
community has been its pastor. The Rev. Edward Downes, native of New Haven, 
first educated as a lawyer, was consul to Amsterdam in the days of President 
Grover Cleveland. Returning at 'the end of his term, he entered the ministry, 
and after a pastorate of nine years at Milford, went to Mount Carmel in 1910. 
He occupies a position of peculiar influence in all the affairs of the community, 
and is performing a work of unusual value even for a pastor. 

Mount Carmel, from the first the abode of people of intelligent inclination 
to study and refinement, has been blessed with some peculiarly good schools. 
Besides participating in the good school system of the tovm in which it is in- 
cluded, it has in its time had the advantage of some excellent private schools. 
Just above Ivesville, a pathwaj'' formed by silver birches runs up the hill west- 
ward at right angles to Whitney Avenue to what is now the ^Mount Canuel Chil- 
dren's Home, a semi-private institution for orphan or dependent children. Before 
the building was used for this purpose it was the residence of James Ives, in his 
day a successful inventor and manufacturer. But it was built for a school for 
girls, and was christened "The Young Ladies' Female Seminary." In spite, 
however, of the redundancy of femininity in its name, it admitted boys at one 
stage in its career. It had such excellent teachers as Miss Elizabeth Dickerman 
and her sistei's, who gave efficient in.struction in the higher as well as the com- 
mon branches of learning. Then for some years the house, converted into a 
private residence, served ]Mr. Ives as a home. It was after his death about thirty 
years ago that it became the Children's Home. It is controlled by a board of 
trustees of which Rev. William G. Lathrop is at present the head, and ]\Iiss Cor- 
nelia A. Blake is matron. It furnishes comfort and instruction to about twenty- 
five Protestant children of the State of Connecticut who might under other 
circumstances be deemed unfortunate. 

Miss Emma E. Dickerman has for years conducted a private school for 
younger children at her home on Wliitney Avenue. A lady of rare breeding and 




-T. JL\RY'S CHURCH. MOUNT CARMEL 




COXGREGATIONAL CHl-RCH AXn PA1!1S;II HOl'SE, :\IOl-XT CARilEL 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 353 

culture, her contribution to the better education of youth of her coinmunitj- has 
been notable. 

In 1915 the school known as the Phelps school, conducted at Wallingford 
by Miss Florence M. Peck, was removed to Hillfield farm in Mount C'armel, a 
modern and superior building having been erected for it. Located on a command- 
ing site, combining the advantages of country air, countrj- fare and the best of 
instruction on the modern plan, with a competent corps of teachers, this school 
honors Mount Carmel as one of the notable educational institutions of the 
vicinity. 

The workers in such schools as this are only a few of the men and women 
who have made and make Mount Carmel a notable community. Their names are 
not in the familiar works of biogi'aphy and reference, as a rule. Some, the most 
of them, are native born, descendants of the founders. Others, whom the eom- 
munitj' honors no less .sincerely, came from \vithout, and in their coming testi- 
fied to their appreciation of a rare place of dwelling. One of these latter, whose 
memory Mount Carmel prizes, and of whom it speaks with pride, was the Rev. 
Joseph Brewster, who from 1853 to 1881 was rector of Christ Church in New 
Haven. In 1865 he purcha.sed the farm which he named "Edgehill," situated 
where, about a quarter of a mile to the east of the Congregational Church, one 
may look up to the tine old mountain or down to the lake that lies in beautiful 
quiet at his feet. There he spent as much of his time as his duties in New Haven, 
and later for two periods as rector of Grace Church in Centerville. would per- 
mit. He began the beautifying of the farm and its surroundings, a work taken 
up and carried to a most attractive point by his distinguished sons, the right 
Rev. Chaunccy B. Brewster, bishop of the Episcopal diocese of Connecticut, the 
Rev. Benjamin Brewster and the Rev. William J. Brewster. The property lias 
now passed out of the Brewster hands to those of the New Haven Water Com- 
pany, but Eli Whitney, its president, keeps a personal watch over it and main- 
tains it as nearly as possible in the condition which its former owners loved. It 
is one of the delightful places of Mount Carmel, commanding a view of moun- 
tain, lake and plain such as is obtainable at very few points in the section. 

The whole region of Hamden abounds in the name of Dickerman. But espe- 
cially is it notable in Mount Carmel. It appears as Jonathan Dickerman among 
the pioneers, and is repeated in his descendants. It comes all the way down with 
names like Isaac, Allen, Samuel and Enos Dickerman. It has been honored in 
this generation by Leverett A. Dickerman, for close to a century a sterling resi- 
dent of Mount Carmel. a long and faithful meml)er and for many years a deacon 
in the Congregational church; and his daughters. Miss Emma E., teacher, and 
Miss Laura L., librarian ; by the Rev. George Sherwood Dickerman, beloved and 
distinguished as a writer and pastor in New Haven and elsewhere; by the late 
John H. Dickerman, historian of Hamden and Blount Carmel, and his daughters, 
Augusta E., wife of Homer B. Tuttle, and Carolyn G., now a teacher in the 
Priory school at Honolulu. 

The name of Woodruff may not be counted among the pioneers of Mount 

Vol. I 2 3 



354 A MODERN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN 

Carmel, though it is historic in the New Haven section. It has distinction today 
in connection with Mount Cannel's principal surviving industrial establishment, 
W. W. Woodruff & Sons, for over eighty years makers of fine carriage trimmings 
and hardware. Arthur E. Woodruff, the leading resident member of the firm, 
is one of the most substantial and honored citizens of the community. 

The name of Ives touches Mount Carmel at many points. James Ives in 
particular contributed gi-eatly to the material w-elfare of the place, and even 
more to the spiritual. He was one of the founders of what is now the Woodruff 
industry. He was practically the founder of the'ilount Carmel Bolt Works. To 
him Mount Carmel largely ow'cs its Children's Home. The Ives name remains 
in Mount Carmel through such representatives as Wilbur C. and Clarence G. 
Ives. 

Tuttlc is one of the honored old names of the village, continuous since the 
time of Nathaniel Tuttle, whose record is found as early as 1730. He had eight 
children, most of whom seem to have settled in Blount Carmel and remained 
through their descendants. Some of them in this time are Dwight Tuttle. ad- 
mitted to the Connecticut bar i]i 1867 ; Dennis Tuttle, also a lawyer, who removed 
to Madison, and was long a prominent and honored citizen of that town ; and 
Homer B. Tuttle, for many years past one of the leading citizens of Blount 
Carmel. 

The "community physician" of the present time in Mount Carmel is Dr. 
George H. Joeelyn, a man of a skill and eminence in his profession which would 
fit him for practice in a much larger community. He has preferred, however, 
that service to the scattered in the country which is one of the highest missions 
of the true physician. 

These are but a few, to be sure, of the names of those who. either descendants 
of the founders or no Jess sterling citizens of later origin, make Mount Carmel a 
goodly place. To them might be added Bassett, Peck, Brockett, Kimberly, ]\Iun- 
son, Todd, Bradley and a host of others, who have contributed in their time or 
ours to the sterling character, to the civic permanence or to the architectural dig- 
nity of the delectable land of Mount Carmel. 

Ill 

The Mount Carmel of today is, as has be^n said, an agricultural community. 
New Haven has grown out to meet it. Whitney Avenue, one of the most im- 
portant highways of New Haven, is now almost continuous from the Green to the 
northern limits of Mount Carmel, and the nearness of the city makes a growing 
demand for the products of the market gardener and the dairyman. There are 
still manufacturing industries, but Mount Carmel 's great manufacturing time 
is of the past. It serves rather now as a comfortable home retreat for workers in 
the city, who are in increasing numbers finding the delightful place, most of 
which is accessible by a half hour's ride from the city. 

But there are others, and their number growls, who seek its coolness, its t|uiet. 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 355 

its rest aud its inspiration in summer's heat or relaxation. Oft" to the southeast 
of the mountain itself there is a settlement which calls itself "the Colony," after 
the manner of Bohemia. Some are artists, some are litterateurs, some are edu- 
cators. All are lovers of nature and her beauties, and they have chosen a rare 
spot for the indulgence of their passion. P^rom their eminence they view at their 
feet Carmel Lake aud its winding river, with its setting of green woods. And 
ever looming up before them, their companion in sunshine or in storm, their 
faithful guardian though in his sleep, their inspiration always, is the reclining 
old man of the mountain. A little farther away to the westward is wooded York 
mountain, while blue in the distance is the range that, coming down from far 
beyond the confines of the town of Hamden, finds its terminus in West Rock. 

That eminence which is Blount Carmel 's center, from which it takes its name, 
always repays closer exploration. He is a poor devotee of the mountain who has 
not climbed it many times. It does not lose in gi-andeur on closer acquaintance, 
though one who views it from the top loses some of his delusions as to the straight 
line of the old Giant. He finds rather a somewhat loosely jointed range of hills, 
clustered in approximate circular formation. The ' " head, ' ' which is nearest Whit- 
ney Avenue, is not the highest point, though it seems so on first approach. Only 
the hardiest climber attempts the mountain by way of that first peak. There 
is a fairly easy path up the "second mountain,"' as it is called, and tlie expe- 
rienced take that. It leads gradually up to a height which lies just a little to the 
south of the "head." But not yet has the climber reached the highest point. 
That is the summit of the "third mountain," which is somewhat to the north 
of the first two. One descends a little from the second mountain to reach it, 
finding, to his surprise, something like a highland swamp between the two. The 
passage to the third height is easy, however, and on its summit one is 741 feet 
above the level of the Soimd, whose blue waters he sees plainly on a clear day, 
more than eight miles distant. The highest point was once marked by a govern- 
ment coast signal station. There is now a tower more than thirty feet high at 
the tip-top, and from the platform which surmounts it the cliiulier is rewarded, 
on a day when the air is clear, with a wondrous view. 

The coast is clear in every direction. This is the highest point short of the 
heights of ileriden, which loom up, gray or blue more distinct, to the north. 
Wallingford is spread out at the nearer northeast. North Haven lies just below. 
The winding Quinnipiac glints through the tre^s and between the meadows. New 
Haven seems far away, but it is there, though the town of Hamden intervenes 
in the nearer distance. Whitney Avenue, with passing trolley cars that look like 
toys, and fleeting motor cars that look smaller still, is a straiglit line of whit'' 
cement in the flashing sun. Off to the west is the West Rock range, with the red 
cliif at its point. To the southeast is East Rock raising aloft its memorial shaft, 
and beyond that is East Haven. On a day of especial clearness, one with or with- 
out a glass may pick out Branford. Guilford aud even ^ladison, with their shore 
points. Cheshire and the Woodbridge hills are not far away. It is a point of 
vantage for viewing all of .\e\v Haven and the eastern jiart of the county. 



356 A MODERN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN 

But most fascinating of all is the broad sweep of the Sound that is brought 
into view. There go the "ships" of all the varieties that the Sound affords. 
Beyond that strip of blue, which at this its wildest point runs almost to thirty 
miles across, lie the sand cliffs of Long Island, always a reminder of the geologi- 
cal theory that this long, thin island is a rim that once broke off from the main- 
land of Connecticut. 

The thoughtful nature lover, especially if the view is new to him, may dwell 
long and lingeringly on it. But there are heights beyond to tempt hiin at this or 
a subsequent visit. There is a fourth and even a fifth mountain, not so high, to 
be sure, but giving a different angle of vision. Or the adventurous may visit 
what is called "the cave" on this same third mountain. It is a hole in the rocks 
leading, by a tortuous path destructive of clothing and not devoid of danger, to 
a subterranean chamber fairly deserving of the name. Or, as a last hazard, the 
adventurer may achieve the "Devil's Pulpit." a basaltic shaft that stands out by 
itself from the edge of this highest mountain. 

Nor is the mountain all, though it is all that the many have discovered. That 
modest lake nestling at the mountain's foot well repays closer scrutiny. Here, 
on a day of summer heat that would make climbing nnweleome, one may find a 
soothing shade and usually a breeze across the water. Here, in many a nook 
secure from interruption or sight of passers by, the strife of life and the war of 
worlds may be forgotten, and genuine recuperation be gained. And close by is 
another charm which only the nature lover will discover and appreciate. South 
of the lake, with its bridges, its murmuring or its dashing falls, runs a woodland 
road along the river, shaded deep with spruces. It is "Spruce Bank." Mosses 
and ferns conserve the coolness of the air and the fragrance of the trees. Through 
them in summer the sun penetrates but slightly, and the continuing .shade and 
the flowing water combine to make relief from the most trying heat. It is a 
place to cool the body and rest the soul, and be healed by the medicine of the 
balsams. 

But always one returns to the mountain. The faithful spirit of the Sleeping 
Giant, unresting while he sleep.?, broods over all. That recumbent form, seen 
at many angles and in many phases, is always in view from all parts of Mount 
Carmel. It never loses its fascination. It becomes beloved of all who dwell near 
or far. It is the good genius of the place, a place whose blessing never grows old. 



CHAPTER XXXIX 
CHESHIRE 

THE FARMING AND INDUSTRIAL AND EDUCATIONAL COMMUNITY THAT WAS CARVED OUT 
OF WALLINGFORD IN THE EARLY DAYS OP THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 

Two Imiulred and twenty-four years ago, though there were dots of settle- 
ment all over the colony of Couneetieut, there was a most hazy notion of the 
measure of distances that lay between. So when the pioneers from New Haven 
went up and pre-empted the "New Haven village" claim to the north of the 
New Haven region, they had vague ideas as to its boundaries. They centered 
their original Wallingford settlement, as we have seen, somewhat toward the 
southern edge of what is now the town of Wallingford. Probably that consider- 
able region to the west and northwest, bounded by the rough heights of what 
is lower down the West Rock range, seemed to them the distant wilderness. They 
did not realize that Waterbury, already lieeoming a sulistantial village, was only 
tive miles beyond it. 

So there is the i-omance of a real pioneer in the beginnings of Cheshire. 
Among the New Haven settlers of Wallingford were Joliii Ives and his brother. 
The adventurer was the son of the former. Young Joseph Ives was not content 
to settle down on his father's farm and never wander. With the real "westward 
ho" spirit, he used to take his gun and perhaps his dog and prospect off toward 
the setting sun and the challenging mountains. Less than four miles from 
where liis father and the neighbors were living, he found a goodly plain. With 
the natural zest of youth, he located a "claim." and tliere, about 1694, he 
hewed out of the unbroken woods the stuff for a log cabirL '■('hesliirc" was 
founded then. 

But Joseph Ives was not a solitary adventurer. He found a kindred spirit 
in young John Hotchkiss, also from the parent colony. They went out together 
to that caliin in the woods. We find them with wives soon after — perliajis they 
had them before they started. Anyway, settlement followed hai-d upon their 
move. Within twenty-six years there wei'e thirteen settlers at least, each with 
his claim or farm, in the region which Joseph Ives and his friend Ilotelikiss 
opened up. In the order of their following of the pioneers, and dating ar, 
intervals from 1697 to 1720, there is record of Ebenezer Doolittle, Thomas Ives, 
Thomas Brooks, Timothy Tuttle, Matthew Bellamy, Nathaniel Bunnell, Abra- 

357 



358 A MODERN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN 

ham Doolittle, ]*Iathias Hitchcock, John and Joseph Thompson, Thomas Cur- 
tiss, Edward Parker and Elnathan Beach. 

These are only a part, for by 1718, we are told, there were forty-five families 
of these pioneers, and they felt their importance. So much so, that they asked 
the General Assembly of that year to be set off from Walliugford as a town. 
The General Assembly duly investigated, and found that forty-five was the out- 
side number of the "planters," and that they had no more than £2,000 worth 
of property between them. It was decided that they had not the strength lo 
stand by themselves as a town. They might, however, become a parish of the 
town of Wallingford, and such they remained until Cheshire was incorporated 
in 17S0. By that time it had over 2,000 people. It got its name, plainly enough, 
from the English Cheshire. The people had not waited until then to have a dis- 
tinctive name. As early as 1724 what "Wallingford had been calling "West 
Farms" was named by its people "New Cheshire." At the time of the incorpo- 
ration the newness had worn off, and the town .stood as Cheshire. 

As elsewhere, that early history was a history of the church. When it became 
a parish as New Cheshire the people, who had been traveling four or five miles 
to worship in Wallingford, established their own church, and its history has 
been their record since. For a quarter of a century and more it ruled alone, and 
in those parishes, as we know, church rule took the place of town i-ule elsewhere. 
In 1723 the people "joined works" and erected the first crude, bare, steepleless, 
forty-by-thirty building, and in the following year Rev. Samuel Hall took up 
the spiritual leadership of the community. He remained for forty-three years, 
and during his pastorate, in 1738, the first building was replaced by a more 
adc(iuate one on the green. It was sixty-four hy forty-five feet, higher, rejoicing 
in a steeple, and having the delightful old raised pulpit and sounding board. 

Rev. John Foot, who came to the assistance of Pastor Hall in his declining 
years, succeeded him. His was another long pastorate, continuing from 1767 
to his death in 1S12. In the next eighty years there were sixteen pastorates. In 
the recent period Rev. J. P. Hoyt has been with the church from 1890 to 1900, 
Rev. R. W. Newlands until 1906, Rev. Carl Stackman from then until 1910, and 
Rev. Von Ogden Vogt from 1910 to 1916. The present pastor is Rev. Chalmers 
Holbrook. 

It has almost been forgotten that there was at one time a second Congrega- 
tional church in Cheshire, for the reason that it has also been forgotten that the 
district which contained it was ever a part of the town. It is the common impres- 
sion that the western boundary of Cheshire, or Wallingford, as it was, was iden- 
tical with the present line, but such was not exaetlj- the case. The westering 
planters had found their way beyond the "Cheshire Mountains," or West Rock 
range as we know it. By 1770 there was a goodly little community on the 
"We.st Rocks." They seem to have had a neighborhood quality, moreover, that 
gave them the .sjjirit of inde|)endence. So it came about that by 1775 they 
insisted on having their own church. It was partly because they wanted a dif- 
ferent church. Some among them were Separatists, or "strict Congregation- 




CJOXGREGATIUXAL (.HIRCH. ( HKSHIKK 




CHESHIRE SCHOOL AXD CHAPEL, CHESHIRE 



AxXD EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY :^59 

alists, " and their leaven leavened the whole lump. So they, since it was out of 
the question for them to establish a separate town, formed the parish or society 
of '"Columbia," and established a church of Columbia. In 1778 they erected 
a crude church building in their "mountains," of which Rev. John Lewis was 
the first pastor. He was followed by Rev. Benjamin Beach, who remained until 
1798. Meanwhile their strictness had relaxed somewhat, so that they adopted 
the Saybrook Platform in 1800. This was near the close of their chapter, for 
soon afterward the beginning of another town started farther to the westward. 
Waterbury was making its contribution to that, and the New Haven and Water- 
bury settlements were meeting. In 1827 territory, partly from Waterbury and 
partly from Cheshire, was set off for a new town, and to it was given the appro- 
priate name of Prospect. 

^leanwhile, the church in the center of Cheshire had progressed, and in 1827 
its present worthy building was erected, and since then has been altered and 
enlarged as the needs of the people required. It is a fine example of the older 
New England type. The ehui'cli still serves, as at the first, in large measure as a 
communitj' center and a leader in the life of the town. 

However, Cheshire has been in some distinguished ways a center of Episcopal 
influence. That foundation on which St. Peter's Chiu'ch was built was laid only 
twent.y-seven years after the Congregational brethren established their church. 
The number of followers of this creed was small then, but they resolved to have 
their own church. It was nine years before they secured a building, and that 
was small and crude. It was thirty-seven years before they had a settled rector. 
Meanwhile. Rev. lehabod Camp, who founded the church, led the services now 
and then, but for the most part Joseph. Moss, a layman, kept the people together. 
There is also mention of some assistance from Rev. Samuel Andrews. In 1788 
Rev. Reuben Ives came as rector. A second building had been erected in 1770, 
which was a little better than the one built in 1760. In 1795 an ambitious 
steeple was added to this building, so very high that when the l)ishop of the dio- 
cese saw it he is said to have remarked, ''thc.y had lietter now build a church for 
the steeple." The steeple was discarded, and a brick church of appropriate 
architecture built in 1840, which with its adjoining parish house buildings, now 
serves the congregation admirably. 

After the thirty-year rectorate of Rev. Reuben Ives there was a succession of 
men, some of them of eminence in the Episcopal Church. The Rev. Elicn E. 
Beardsley was rector from 1835 to 1844, during most of which time he was also 
the principal of the adjoining Episcopal Academy, or military school. Ho 
resigned from the church in the latter year to give all his time to the charge 
of the school, but went to St. Thomas Church of New Haven in 1848. Rev. 
J. Frederick Sexton was rector of St. Peter's from 1887 to 1897. Rev. Marcus 
J. Simpson is at pre.sent the rector, and has been since 1912. 

A Methodist Episcopal church was founded in Cheshire in 1834. At that 
time there was a colony of English miners in the barytes mine which was 
operated at "Ginny Hill," and they yearned for the worship of Wesley. Some 



360 A MODERN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN 

oi' the zealous leaders united in the startiug of a church, and arouiid it the sue- 
ceediug followers of that faith have rallied ever since. Its people erected in that 
first year a brick building, primitive at first, but enlarged and improved suc- 
cessively in 1859, 1872, 1889 and 1894, until it excellently meets the church's 
needs. The Rev. E. F. Neumann, Jr., was pastor in 1917, and the conference of 
191S appointed Rev. W. P. Michel as supply. 

Cheshire's widest fame comes from the school under the direct guidance of 
the Episcopal Churcli which has been located in the town for almost a century 
and a quarter. , Founded in 1796, it is the oldest institution of its sort in the 
country. Up to the time of the establishment of Trinity College at Hartford it 
served also the purpose of a seminary for preparation for the Episcopal ministry. 
Later it was changed to a high class secondary school, and militarj- training 
became so much a feature of its curriculum that it was for several years known, 
and still is by many persons, as the Cheshire ililitary Academy. Then it gradu- 
ally lost its military features, and became officially the Episcopal Academy of 
Connecticut. In 1903 "The Cheshire School" was incorporated, and to this 
corporation the Episcopal Academy of Connecticut was leased. 

In the school's distinguished history clergymen of national eminence have 
been its rectors or among its teachers, and men of even more ultimate distinc- 
tion, as laymen as well as clergymen, have studied in its halls. Rev. Reuben Ives, 
the first rector of St. Peter's Church, wa.s largelj' instrumental in establishing it. 
Its first principal, or rector, was Rev. Dr. John Bowden, who conducted its 
classes in the single square building north of what is now Bronson Hall. He 
closed his work in 1802, and was followed by Rev. Dr. William Smith and Rev. 
Dr. Tillotsou Bronson, the latter closing a remarkable period of twenty-six 
years' service in 1831. In his time the school had seen, because of the very broad 
service it had been required to render, its most distinguished days. 

In the period since, and more especially in the past twenty years, conducted 
as a college preparatory school the academy has had some able teachers. Its 
principal at the time of its incorporation was Rev. John D. Skilton. In 1910 
Paul Klimpke, M. A., became its principal, and continues in the position. The 
school has a distinguished location in the heart of Cheshire, occupying four com- 
modious buildings. Bowdon Hall, built in 1796, was for nearly seventy years 
the school's only building. The others, Beardsley Hall, Bronson Hall and 
Horton Hall, have been built since 1865. 

In 1914 was completed, in the central part of Cheshire at the junction 
between the road to Waterbury and the road to Milldale, the Connecticut 
Reformatory. The state institution has a commanding location, some commo- 
dious modern buildings, and is doing a truly reformatory work for delinquents 
between the prison and the "reform school" ages and classes. Its board of 
directors consists of Morris W. Seymour, president; Charles Hopkins Clark, 
vice president; John P. Elton, secretary; E. Kent Hubbard, treasurer, and 
Anson T. McCook. The superintendent is George C. Erskine. Training as much 
as possible, restraint as little as may be permitted, and the modern system of 




THE OLD liOVKKXOR FOOTE I'LAl E. HO.ME (IK AD.MIKAL F(H ITE. CHESHIRE 



AND EASTERN NEW IIAVEX COUNTY 361 

reform by persuasion with free outdoor work are some of the methods wliicli 
characterize this iustitution. Within two years of its foundation the manage- 
ment of the refonnatory had been able to demonstrate their ideas by constructing, 
largely through the labor of its boys, the section of state cement road between 
Cheshire and ililldale. 

In addition to its central graded school, Cheshire has district schools at 
Brooksvale, "West Cheshire, Mixville, Cheshire Street and at five other points 
around the edges of the town, all of which are well conducted and are doing 
competent educational work. The present school committee is Jacob D. Walter, 
Clinton C. Peck, Arthur S. Backus, Charles A. Buckingham, Frederick Doolittle 
and Howard E. Ives. 

Temple Lodge, No. 16, F. & A. M., was established in Cheshire in 1790, and 
has continued in strength and prosperitj- to the present time. L. A. Thomas 
Lodge, I. 0. 0. F., was instituted in 1888. Other organizations and societies 
are Edward A. Doolittle Post, 6. A. R.. establishetl in 1881 ; Cheshire Grange, 
No. 23, and three temperance societies. 

Chesliire has one of the oldest soldiers' monuments in the country. The noise 
of the contliet had hardly died away when a committee was formed to arrange 
for suitably memorializing the brave deeds of the town's soldiers and sailors in 
the Civil War, and through a generous fund a shaft of Plymouth granite was 
I'aised on the green in front of the Congregational Church in 1866. What 
Cheshire will do to lionor the greater number of its citizens wlio are now offering 
their lives in many forms of service in the great war remains to be seen, but it 
will be something adequate. 

Cheshire's Public Library was established in 1892. and abundantly serves 
the needs of the town. It has 6,442 volumes, and the librarian is Miss Mary E. 
Belden. 

The Yankee followed hard after the farmer in Cheshire. Before the 
eighteenth century was born "mills" had begun to spring up wherever there was 
water power. By 1800 there were varied lines of manufacture all over the town. 
The works of the cooper abounded. The wheelwright was hard at his craft — 
and the roads of those days kept him busy. There were carding, dressing and 
fulling works. There were sawmills and fanning mills and tanneries, plants 
where they made threshing machines and tinware. Old residents of not so many 
j'ears ago, used to tell of the long wagon trains with finished goods headed for 
the New Haven markets which used to wend their way out of Cheshire in tlie 
early days of the la.st century. 

That was before the canal came, for the New Haven-Farmington waterway 
had its course through Cheshire. By the time it was replaced by the railroad 
changing conditions had thinned out most of the small industries, and the town 
was coming into its destined function as an agricultural community. With the 
coming of the railroad, the remaining factories, and others that were later 
started, gravitated toward the western side of the town, or West Cheshire. In 
that community a group of factories was started about the middle of the century. 



362 A MODERN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN 

The Cheshire Manufacturiug Company dated from 1850, and the Cheshire Brass 
Company from 1866. In 1853 the John Mix Manufactm-ing Company developed 
from a business which had been making britannia spoons, and turned to gimlets 
and auger bits. West Cheshire, also, had a web factory from about 1853 to 
1857. Of these the survivors are the Connecticut Brass Company, makers of 
sheet brass, which seems to be a descendant of the Cheshire Brass Company, and 
the Ball & Socket JMaaufacturing Company, which makes a specialty of buttons 
and light brass goods. These employ a considerable and increasing number of 
men. 

In the main the tine old town's foundation is agricultural. It has not as 
many people today as it had half a century ago, whereby hangs a tale of a very 
interesting industry of the past. In the "Cheshire Mountains" about 1855 
was discovered a deposit of barytes. Outside capital rushed to the feast, and it 
is said that in tlie next sixteen years some 160 tons, worth then -$1,500,000, were 
extracted from the soil of Cheshire. The town profited from it to the extent that 
it brought hundreds of peojjle there, many of them English miners and good 
citizens. Cheshire's high water mark in population was at about the end of this 
period. After that it dropped back slightly, and now is about the same as in 
1855. Cheshire partakes of the fruit raising and mai-ket farming prosperity of 
its neighbors, for it has even better land than theirs. It is also becoming the 
summer home place of dwellers in nearby cities, and as it has many natural 
attractions, this condition is likeh' to increase. 

All over the town, after the lapse of more than two centuries, may still 
be found the names of the original planters. But with them are mingled many 
names new and old of discriminating folk of many origins, who choose the town 
for its inherent virtue. Among them are men who lead like Frederick Doolittle, 
Jacob D. Walter, Paul Klimpke, Rev. Marcus J. Simpson and Rev. Chalmers 
Holbrook, Drs. C. N. Denison, N. W. Karrman and George E. Myers, or Charles 
A. Buckingham, Graham A. Hitchcock and Clinton C. Peck. 



CHAPTEK XL 
NORTH HAVEN 

EARLY OFFSHOOT OF THE NEW HAVEX fOLOXV, HOME OF DISTINGUISHED DIVINES, 
MODERN illNGLING OF INDUSTRIAL AND AGRICULTURAL TOWN 

It is evident from its boundaries tliat North Haveu was not laid out by tiie 
tlieodolite of any surveyor, not bounded by any plan, but "just growed. " Its 
western line apparently started from Cedar Hill with good intention to stick to 
the Quinnipiae River, but suddenly changed its mind about two and a half miles 
up. It runs nearly west then for much over a mile, almost meeting Mill River. 
A little above there, it takes to the river until it is opposite the center of Mount 
Carmel, when it shies at the beginnings of the mountain itself, and turns 
sharply eastward, CTirving north and northeast under the brow of the mountain 
until again it meets the Quinnipiae. There is a notch in its northeast corner, 
while the line follows Worten Brook due east to make a right angle with a 
straight line running south. There is another notch eastward at Northfoi-d, then 
with fair regularity the line comes south almost to Foxon, then runs southwest 
until it meets Cedar Hill again. 

There are 21.7 square miles within these boundaries, of river bottom, meadow, 
rolling hills and highlands. There is some little ai'ea that strikes the traveler as 
desert. But mainly North Haven is a combination of prosperous fruit raising 
and general farming country, brick producing flat and small manufacturing 
village. It is seven miles from north to southern end, and four and a half miles 
across at its widest point. AVithout anything like a boom or artificial aid, it has 
growni quite slowly but consistently from the village of about 1,200 it was when 
incorporated in 1786 to the 2.254 it had in 1910. Sufficiently separated from the 
city, it has its distinct community life. Dating its origin back to within two 
years of the settlement of New Haven, it has its independent history. It is self 
supporting, it is self reliant, it is prosperous and crowned with honor wholly on 
its own account. All in all, it is an unusual combination of suburb and country, 
but withal, as resjieets both the works of nature and of man, a thoroughly 
delightful dwelling place. 

North Haven seems to have grown naturally, and to have l)een early destined 
to separation from the parent town. Most of its planters at first came from the 
Davenport party, but apparently there was some extent of independent origin. 
For William Bradley, credited with being the North Haven pioneer, was not 

36:^ 



■,iU A MODERN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN 

mentioned in the New Haven list. He is said to have been an officer in Croui- 
well's army, and surely was a man of distinction. He is traced on the west side 
of the "East River'' in 16-iO. To his company came in a year or so a group of 
the New Haven pilgrims, but apparently they judged the east side of the river 
better for their purposes. In the plantci-s' schedule of 1641 are found the 
names of Yale, Tuttle, Cooper, and Thorp, and the place-name of the region 
above Cedar Hill was "East Farms." 

Presently to the locality which is now the southwestern point came Atwater, 
Turner, Potter, Brewster and Mansfield. The names of some of them are plaiai 
there today. Thoma.s and Nathaniel Yale came in 1660. Twenty years later 
Jonathan Tuttle and Blakeslee, Barnes and Brockett had come, and the tide was 
working slowly north. As early as 1700 there was a "North Village," and the 
history of North Haven proper may be said to begin then. For the next fifteen 
years the pioneers were busy with settling, and seem to have thought little about 
a comnumity. They kept church connection with New Haven, though their dis- 
tance was approaching five miles. 

It was not until 1716 that the planters were permitted to be a parish, and 
to form an ecclesiastical society. Thei-e were forty families then. They pro- 
ceeded to erect a meeting house, finishing it in 1717. Their first minister was 
Rev. James Wetmore, who remained four years. Rev. Isaac Stiles, who followed 
him, became early a powerful constructive force in the making of the town. He 
was thirty-six years with the church, and in that time he established it and its 
people greatly in that faith and character to which the North Haven of our times 
owes so much, and whose results it so greatly exemplifies. Following ]\Ir. Stiles 
came one of the most remarkable men who have lived in North Haven, in many 
ways one of Connecticut's most distinguished citizens. Rev. Jonathan Truinliull. 
who came to the church in 1760, was in his time a national character, and in the 
years since has been no less renowned as a historian. He was a man of active 
inclinations, and when Colonel Wooster raised his famous regiment in 1775, he 
went out with it as chaplain. Following the war, he wrote that history of 
Connecticut on which his reputation rests. It was in two volumes, covering the 
period from the earliest settlement to the close of the Indian wars. It is recog- 
nized as "tlie most careful, minute and conscientious chronicle of the colonial 
history of the state ever written." It was Dr. Trumbull's intention to follow this 
with a history of the United States, a work which ho was well (jualified to do, 
and it is a matter of regret that he achieved only one vuluuie, which was pub- 
lished in 1810. Advancing age and other cares stopped for him all work liut that 
of the church, which he contiiuu'd until his death in 1820, preaching his last 
sermon only nine days before that, when he was past eighty-four years. His 
service of three score years in the noble old church of North Haven, in addition 
to being the chief life work of one of the state's most distinguished men of that 
period, was in its mere length a conspicuously notable pastorate. 

It is not easy, regarding the work of men like Dr. Stiles and Dr. Truiubull. 
to exaggerate the influence of the pastors of the single church in the making 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 365 

of the towu. They set a high mark, not only for those who followed them in this 
pulpit, but for all the citizens. And they were followed by men who profited 
by their traditions. The day of such pastorates as theirs seems past, and the 
list from then till now would be a long one. For thirteen yeai-s after the deatJi 
of Dr. Trumbull Rev. W. J. Boardmau was pastor. Passing over thirty years, 
we come to another long pastorate, that of Rev. William T. Reynolds fi'om 1863 
to 1893. Rev. William 6. Lathrop, now at Mount Carmel, was pastor for seven 
years after that. From 1900 to now there have been Rev. Charles Franklin, Rev. 
Frederick L. Hall and Rev. Howard G. Parsons, the present pastor. 

The first meeting house was of the ungainly type of 1717. It did not last 
long, and was replaced in 1739 b3- an edifice of the best architecture of that time. 
It v:as barnlike at its best, yet it was rejoiced in by the people as one of the best 
cliurch edifices in the state outside of the cities. When built, it had only a turret. 
A tall spire replaced the turret in 1800, and the "tinkling bell"' gave way to an 
adequate one. In 1835 a brick church of goodly architecture, with a symmetrical 
spire, was built. That was the stately building which most of this generation 
have known, the edifice which was burned in 1910. The building erected two 
years later to fill its place is of a radically different type, modern, symmetrical 
and admirably ajipointed, but somehow, to those who know the traditions of this 
church, it leaves something to be desired. 

Harmoniously with their Congregational brethren have dwelt since 1722 the 
Episcopalians of North Haven. Of St. John's Church the Rev. James Wetmore 
Tvas the father, and the first worship of this order was in the houses of the mem- 
bers. It was .some time after 1722 that there was a definite organization. For 
nearly sixty years after that Wallingford, Cheshire and North Haven Episco- 
palians joined forces in the "Union Church," built in 1710 in the Pond Hill 
district. That building was not a thing of beautj', but in it was the spirit of 
worship. By 1761 the people of North Haven felt strong enough for their own 
church, and in that year built at the northeast corner of the Green a wooden house 
with no steeple or porch. Rev. Ebenezer Punderson was the rector at first, being 
followed, in the days of the Revolutionary War, by Rev. Samuel Andre^^■s. The 
latter was a man of influence, but divided the people becaiisc of his loyalist 
principles. Rev. Edwai'd Blakeslee followed him in 1790. In recent times the 
church has been a goodly force in the community through such leadere as Rev. 
William Lusk. Jr., and since 1908, Rev. Arthur F. Lewis. 

There is at ilontowese, the settlement with the famous name at the lower 
end of North Haven, a Baptist church, established in 1811. Joshua Bradley had 
much to do with its founding, and it has had a useful career. It has been minis- 
tered to in the past three years by Rev. Carl Swift. There is also, at Clinton- 
ville, a Union ^fission, founded in 1889. 

It is probable that not more than half the workers of North Haven, at least 
in these days, are in agriculture. Industries of other sorts had an early start 
in the town. Several substantial brooks feed the Quinnipiac in its course 
through the town, and water powers are numerous. These had their saw and 



366 A MODERN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN 

grist mills from early times. There were the usual fulling mills, and the tan- 
ning of leather was a familiar industry, as it was in almost every Connecticut 
town. As early as 1665 bog iron was mined in North Haven, though it could 
have had little commercial value. But by 1720 they had discovered tliat the 
Quinnipiac clay beds would produce satisfactory brick, and that was the begin- 
ning of North Haven's really important industry. On both banks of the river, 
for several miles of its progress through the town, these plants have now been 
worked actively for over six decades. 

The first systematically developed brick industiy — though it is probable that 
brick was made long before that in a desultory way — was the North Haven Brick 
Company in 1854. But the same year Warner, Mansfield & Stiles was formed, 
and it is possible to see the successor of that firm in the I. L. Stiles & Son Brick 
Company, as the firm name has been since ISiJl, now the principal brick pro- 
ducer of the town. The output of North Haven brick has included all varieties, 
and has at times been enormous. William E. Davis & Company also have a larg.j 
plant, and there is at ilontowese a single large concern which makes the princi- 
pal industry of the village aside from farming, the Cody Brick Company. 

These concerns, doing a prosperous business and employing more men today 
than ever before in North Haven industry, are the sole survivors of a long line. 
Time was when Clintonville, the village on the Air Line Railroad in the far 
northeastern corner of the town, was an important manufacturing point. There 
were valuable water rights there. In 1830 the Clintonville Agricultural Works 
made a standard line of farm implements, but years ago it was sold and removed 
to New Jersey. Twenty-three years later there was Clinton, Wallace & Com- 
pany, with a large factoiy, making considerable quantities of farm tools and 
implements. A quarter of a century later the farm tool industry had waned, 
but about that time a veritable craze for fancy "visiting" cards swept across 
the country. There were at Clintonville at that time several print shops which 
developed an immense mail order business for these all over the country, and 
their advertising made Clintonville widely famous. Only a trace of this indus- 
try' remains in the village today. 

The list of industries that have waxed and waned is somewjmt longer. In 
1869 arose the Quinnipiac Paper Company. That is no more. The U. S. Card 
Factory Company, started in 1881. has gone the way of the other card indus- 
tries. The North Haven Manufacturing Company, which made tin spoons, is 
ntit found today. The Tuttle Brothers Printing Company, card publishers, weiit 
with the passing of the fad. Twenty-five years ago there were in North Haven 
and Clintonville four or five good sized concerns for the making of carriage 
woodwork, but of these the chief traces are Edward Clinton & Son of Clinton- 
ville and T. S. Stiles, wagon builder, of North Haven. 

The agricultural development of North Haven has kept pace with that of the 
towns around it. North Haven peaches, strawberries and other small fruits 
have gained a favorable reputation in New Haven and other cities, and the 
quantity nicreases each year, while garden truck and dairy products increase 




:mejiortal hall, xorth haven 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 367 

in quantity with the demand. North Haven land is good and easily tilled, and 
its farm prosperity notably grows. 

In 1916 the town had 557 school children, provided for in a comfortable cen- 
tral building of four rooms and in eight district schoolhouses. North Haven's 
standard of education is high, and the work done in its well taught, well super- 
vised schools shows excellent results. The present town school committee is: 
Hubert F. Potter, George J. ]\lerz, Andrew D. Clinton, Marcus D. Marks, Ralph 
W. Nichols, Isaac E. Mansfield, John R. North, David B. Andrews, Wilson E. 
Goodsell. 

While North Haven was still a parish of New Haven the parent town in 1714 
donated to "the neighbors" the eight or ten acres which constitute its "green." 
Probably it was wooded then. Gradually the trees were removed, but it was 
not until long after the town's incorporation in 1786 that any adequate effort was 
made to take care of the green. Indeed, well on in the past century it was so neg- 
lected that compared with what it might have been it was a source of grievance 
to many citizens. Of late years, however, the green has been better eared for, 
though it still shows room for improvement. 

The North Haven ^Memorial Library was established in 1884, and is a well 
kept institution now circulating 5,51U volumes. Its librarian is Miss Clara E. 
Bradley. It was erected through the efforts of the Bradley Library Association, 
though a memorial legacy from the late Hon. S. Leverius Bradley of Auburn, 
New York, descendant of a prominent family of North Haven Bradleys, made 
it possible. 

For many years North Haven's lack of a suitable town hall bothered many oi" 
the citizens, as did the absence of a monument to its soldier dead grieve many of 
the patriotically inclined. At length the double lack was supplied by a single 
means, and in 1887 the Memorial Hall, erected at a co.st of $5,000, met a public 
need and became a suitable soldiers' memorial. 

The changes in industrial conditions of the recent decades, and especially the 
demand for brick workers, have served to alter the character of the town's popu- 
lation from the simplicity of the old stock. Yet North Haven's citizenship well 
holds its own. It has increasingly become a place of suburban residence, particu- 
larly in its center, and trains and trolleys at morning and night are filled with 
North Haveners whose work is elsewhere. The Hartford and the Air Line rail- 
roads and the trolley serve these needs of the commuter, while the town's own 
natural attractiveness does the rest. Among the citizens who make the town 
today are descendants of the first settlers, though there is a mixture of other 
names. Col. Robert 0. Eaton and Col. J. Richard North are conspicuous, the 
one in politics, the other in military and community service. Two physicians. 
Dr. R. B. Goodyear and Dr. C. S. Higgins, care for the people's health, while 
all the lawyers are men like Ward Church who have their practice in the city 
though their homes are in the town. Other "first citizens'' are John H. Blakes- 
lee. Sheldon B. Thorpe, the town's careful historian, Hubert F. Potter, :Milo 
N. Wooding and Charles E. Davis. 



CHAPTER XLI 
EAST HAVEN 

"east farms," its development, its growth and division and its change to 

THE AGRICULTURAL TOWN AND SUBURBAN SETTLEMENT WHICH IT IS TODAY 

On the eastern side of the bay which makes New Haveu harbor is a tract 
of land that might geographically be described as a peninsula. The waters 
which bound it on its western side are New Haven harbor and the broad mouth 
of the Quinnipiae River, which for almost two miles north of the harbor is an 
estuary. On its eastern side for three miles i-uns down Lake Saltonstall, a 
deep, substantial body of water, which is connected with the Sound over two 
miles farther down by what at its mouth is called Stony River. This is the 
peninsula, at the beginning gi-eatly isolated from the New Haven settlement, 
now so closely connected that one gets hardly an impression of division, which 
was "East Farms" for the first century and a half of its existence, later 
East Haven. 

Here we are in the region of shore towns, and a material part of the almost 
thirty square miles which originally formed East Haven is the familiar "salt 
meadow," whose crop is mosquitoes, shore l)irds and a sort of grass which the 
farmei-s formerly thought worth the expenditure of considerable time and 
labor. A large tract east and northeast of Morris Cove, another almost in the 
center of the old town's territory and still another along the upper banks and 
to the eastward of the river, is either salt or fresh marsh. For the rest. East 
Haven is Tolling farm land, with a few heights that make it interesting. Chief 
of these is Pond Rocks, a range nearly four miles long which skirts the western 
shore of Lake Saltonstall, rising at its highest point to 240 feet. 

The early settlers naturally overflowed to East Farms. To those less used to 
bridges than are we, the crossing of the (Quinnipiae was not a difficulty. Yet 
the river did make a positive boundary, and it was inevitable that this should 
become a more or less distinct community from the first. It was found a land 
of the Indians. Its fair fields at the north had been their hunting grounds. 
"Fort Hill," which rises 360 feet at what was the center of the town, was 
so named because it was their place of defense. "Grave Hill," farther north, 
was their ancient burial ground. Over the old lake, doubtless, and through 
its outlet to the Sound, they drove their light canoes. Over the hills and 
meadows and flats of the region they hunted, and on the shore they gathered 
the aboriginal oyster and clam. 

368 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 869 

Frieudlj- enough William Andrews and his associates found them when 
they came in 1639 — for East Farms was well sprinkled w-ith planters while 
yet the dwellers in the nine squares were timidly locking their stockade gates 
by night. The tract including East Farms had been acquired from the In- 
dians in fair bargain the year before, and they had no enmity for the white 
man. There were some 113 settlers in that first party. Names like William 
Andrews, Jasper Craj^ne, Thomas Gregson, William Tuttle, John Potter, Mat- 
thew Moulthrop, Matthias Hitchcock, Edward Patterson, Thomas Morris and 
John Thompson led the list. Names like these are spread all over the town 
today, for East Haven's old stock still holds its ground. 

Evidently good reports of the laud went back to New Haven or spread 
elsewhere, for a new party, almost as large as the first, followed to settle in 
1644. Before that adventurous settlers had spread out, finding some of the 
shore points first, evidently. In the year of first settlement Thomas Gregson 
is reported at ''Solitary Cove," now Morris Cove — it is anything but solitary 
now — and in 1644 he was allotted 133 acres there. He seems to have been 
the first man to bring his familj- to East Farms. Thomas Morris of the first 
party was not far behind him, however. He was a shipbuilder, and in 1671 
built the old Morris house which still stands in good preservation at the Cove. 

The advantages of what is now East Haven as a suburban residence seem 
to have been early discovered. Perhaps there was prophecy in the purchase, 
following Rev. Samuel Eaton, who had fifty acres there in 1640, by Rev. 
John Davenport in 1649 of a farm of 600 acres at Dragon Point, which he ran 
as a eountiy place called the "Davenport Farm," and employed Ailing Ball as 
his farmer. 

The most distinguished "country residence" in East Farms came later, prob- 
ably as late as 1700, when Governor Gurdon Saltonstall built on the heights 
overlooking the lake one of the finest houses in Connecticut. There he lived 
for the remainder of his life, and his residence there rescued that fine body 
of water from the obloquy of being longer called "Furnace Pond." 

The impressive allotments of land did not tend, perhaps, to the early in- 
crease of East Haven's population beyond a certain point. For in 1754, 
much over a century after the first settlement, there were only sixty-one fam- 
ilies tliere. The "Farms" had sought parish privileges in 1677, but did not 
get thera until 1680. There was strength enough to secure incoi-poration as 
a town in 1785, and shortly after that, the enumerators said. East Haven 
had 1,025 people. 

That town, it should -be remembered, was all and a little more of the 
peninsula heretofore described. It had the populous east shore of the Quin- 
nipiac and the harbor, all the way from Cedar Hill to what we call Light- 
house Point. It took in Morris Cove and Fair Haven East as those sections 
grew np. This explains why it increased until in 1855 it had 2.000 people, 
then 3,057 in 1880. Meanwhile, it had become an awkwardly divided com- 
munity. There was the Village of East Haven, southwest of the point of Lake 

Vol. I 2 4 



370 A MODERN HISTOKY OF NEW HAVEN 

Saltonstall. There was the strictly agricultural northern area, comprising 
most of the town's land. There were the seaside communities of Morris Cove 
and South End. And there was the near-city on the eastern shore of the 
Quinnipiac. 

This last produced trouble, largely financial. Bridging the Quinnipiac was 
no small task, and was not attempted, at the point where it was needed most, 
till 1877. By 1650 there were ferries across the river near its mouth, and 
from Fair Haven to Fair Haven East the town operated a ferry for some 
years after the Ferry Street bridge was built lower down. But necessity com- 
pelled the Grand Avenue bridge in 1877, and the $60,000 it cost was a pretty 
heavy load for a town with a gi-aud list of only $2,190,220. By the time it 
was done. East Haven had a bonded debt of $100,000. The owners of mod- 
erately paying farm lands, getting little benefit from these costly improvements 
which the east bank of the river thought it must have, vigorously protested. 

That is a part of the story which ended in 1881 in the setting off to Xew 
Haven of nearly half the territory of East Haven. The new line ran from a 
point in the North Haven boundary east of "the ridge" southwest to Fort 
Hale park, then southerly to the Morris Creek on the Cove meadows, which 
it follows to the Sound. The event has proved that the division is more natural 
than that whicli the Quinnipiac made, for the annexed area, now New Haven's 
Fourteenth and Fifteenth wards, is now substantially built up, except the 
northeastern corner. As a consideration, in part, for this annexation, Xew 
Haven assumed the whole of East Haven's bonded debt of $100,000. 

This left East Haven with a population of 955. In the course of thirty- 
seven years it has without artificial aid more than doubled its number, and 
is now back where it was in 1855, having today not far from 2.000 people. It 
has a property list much larger than its total when the separation came, though 
it has formed a new debt as great as the first cost of the Grand Avenue bridge. 
Apparently it is well content with its size and status, being a substantial, 
prosperous town, whose history, though great, is not all behind it. 

Much of that history centers around "the Old Stone Church." which stands 
near the center of the town, the ancient church of the fathers. The scattered 
early settlers were not able to support a church, and must have worshipped in 
New Haven for fifty or sixty years. The first definite record we find of 
worship in East Haven was the ministration of Rev. Jacob Hemingway, who 
began to preach to the people in 1704. This must have been in the planters' 
houses, for the church was not officially organized until seven years later, and 
not before 1711 was its first building erected. The size of this indicates a 
congregation of modest requirements. It was only twenty by sixteen feet. Its 
appointments without and within were equally primitive, no doubt. Either it 
was inade(|uate from the start or the congregation grew more rapidly than was 
expected, for it was used only eight years. It was replaced in 1719 by a larger 
building, about which we are told little. It served the people, however, for 
fifty-five years. 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 371 

Oue of the distinctions of this elmrch is tliat in its 207 years it has had 
but seven pastors, oue of whom merely filled an interregnum as acting pastor. 
The briefest regular pastorate was of nine years. From that the range has been 
up to tifty-one. The first pastor, beginning his service seven yeai"s before the 
church was organized, remained until Iiis death fifty years later. The second 
pastor was Rev. Nicholas Street, who was ordained in 1755, and remained until 
his death closed a remarkable service of fifty-one years. So long a pastorate, 
at a time when the town was in its formative period, had an incalculable in- 
fluence. Indeed, the power that has gone out from the old church in its 
two centuries is easily recognized but cannot be reckoned. 

Following Mr. Street's came the comparatively brief pa.storate of Rev. Saul 
Clark. He was installed in 1808, and after eight years he was dismissed, on 
his own request. East Haven had become much of a town in 1817, when Rev. 
Stephen Dodd came to this church. He was an able preacher, a firm advocate 
of temperance, a man of cjuiet power. He led the church and in great measure 
the people for twenty-nine years. lie found time to give some little attention to 
historical research, and in 1824 published, under the title of the East Haven 
Register, some valuable facts of the town's history and genealogy. Fifth in 
the order came Rev. Daniel W. Havens, and rounded out an even thirty years 
— thirty years of constructive progress, closed in 1877 by his resignation. Fol- 
lowing that there were three years in which Rev. Joseph Tomlinson was acting 
pastor. 

Thirty-eight years ago there came to this church and pulpit a man who 
was to cover the whole modern period in one remarkalile pastorate, as dis- 
tinguished as any in its history. Rev. Daniel J. Clark was then a young man, 
just from Hartford Theological Seminary. It was his first charge. He has 
grown up with the old town in its modem time. He has seen its most important 
changes. He has grown into the hearts of the people through the devotion of 
his life to their service in the old church. 

It is an old church, even as a building. This edifice of stone, though it 
has that appearance of healthy youth which symmetry of architecture gives, 
dates back nearly a century and a half to 1774, in the time of the second pastor. 
It was, when built, notable in the church architecture of Connecticut, in city or 
country. Now. a century and a half young, it stands out with all the dignity 
of old. a true symbol of the permanence and eternal youth of the ideals for 
which it stands. The chapel, or parish house, constructed of stone that as 
nearly as possible matches the church, was erected in 1874 as a "centennial 
chapel" to celebrate the church building's centenary. It well serves the com- 
munity's needs as a center of healthful activities in connection with the church's 
work. 

The missionary spirit of old Trinity on the Green helped toward the estab- 
lishment, as it has helped in the maintenance, of a church of the Episcopal 
faith in East Haven. It is called Trinity there. Its pathway has not been all 
an ea.sy oue. From 1788 there were first neighborhood meetings conducted by 



372 A MODERN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN 

a bodv of Chureli of England believers of which Samuel Tuttle was chairman 
and John Bird clerk. The building of a chapel was begun in 1789, but the 
work was interrupted by an untoward accident in raising the frame, and other 
delays following, was not completed until 1810. Meanwhile, it was used to 
some extent. Rev. Edward Blakeslee was the first rector, but his stay was 
brief, and in the next eighty years there were some twenty-five rectorates, 
interspersed, during the first part of the period, by seasons in which Rev. 
Dr. Hubbard came out from Trinity in New Haven to conduct the services. 
The chapel was enlarged in 1843 and 1845, and in 1867 was completed to sub- 
stantially its present form. 

In the far northeast of the town there is a section which got its name from 
the Indian sagamore Foxou. On another line of main highway, six miles distant 
from the Village of East Haven, it has become a somewhat distinct center of 
the farming district. There was erected in 1877 a chapel for neighborhood gath- 
erings, and in 1893 a Congregational church was organized. It has but fifty- 
three members, and is in part a state mission church, but it holds a sort of 
frontier in the sturdy old pilgrim spirit. Rev. Charles Page has since 1894 
been its pastor. 

About 1914 there was established in the southwestern part of East Haven 
a Catholic parish, taking in the village and a part of the ^Morris Cove section. 
It has a substantial building, and is ministered to by Rev. Joseph Joyce, D. D. 

East Haven has a good school equipment. By arrangement with New Haven, 
it has the advantage of the city's high school privileges. The costly system 
of small district schools has been in great mea.siu-e abolished, and the town's 
781 pupils are accommodated in two school buildings, one of one room and 
the other of six in the central portion of the town. The value of these build- 
ings is upwards of -^20,000. The school committee in 1917 consisted of Samuel 
R. Chidsey, John D. Houston, Charles H. Stanton, Charles W. Granniss, John 
Scoville, Julius E. Brooks, Robert E. Hall, Minott C. Bradley and Grove J. 
Tuttle. 

This was not always the peaceful combination of suburban village and agri- 
cultural town it seems today. It appears to have been discovered that there was 
iron in the vicinity of "Great Pond" almost as soon as that there was virtue 
in the soil to raise crops. So the lake was early dubbed "Furnace Pond," from 
the iron works there. It was in 1655 that they were established, the earliest of 
any in the state. But the iron industry does not appear to have amounted to 
much, and presently was overshadowed by others which sought to utilize the 
water power from Stony River or from the Farm River which flows down 
from Foxon and empties into it. In 1680 a firm with famous names, Stephen 
Goodyear and John Winthrop, Jr.. asked for the mill privilege at Saltonstall. 
Another attempt to manufacture iron was made there in 1692 by John Potter. 
Soon the place was monopolized by the town grist mill. Samuel Heminway being 
the miller. Further down, and later, there was a paper mill. James Donoghue, 
James Harper and othei-s organized the Saltonstall Manufacturing Company 



AND EASTEKN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 373 

in 1871. Still later, evidently in that same plant, were made heavy carriage 
and portable engine wheels. In the nature of a successor to this there was 
in the village later a shop run by steam power, and conducted by Stephen 
Bradley & Company. 

So ends East Haven's manufacturing chapter, for virtually all of these 
things are of the past, and little trace remains. The town has nothing that may 
properly be called manufacturing. Yet it has the look of prosperity and thrift, 
and that is not an illusion. Its growing central streets have their houses oc- 
cupied by East Haveners — and they are loyal East Haveners, too, for there is 
a justified pride in tlie town — who have business or employment in the city, or 
perhaps have farming or business interests in East Haven. There is abiding 
evidence of good construction on the ancient foundations. The men of East 
Haven are substantial men, worthy holders of such names as Bi*adley and 
Thompson and Hosley and Tuttle and Scoville and Street. The town has in 
Dr. Charles "W. Holbrook its beloved physician, and its'legal needs are supplied 
by Attornej's Dwight W. Tuttle, Grove J. Tuttle and Alfred W. Andrews. A 
competent fire department, with H. B. Page as chief, protects the thickly Iniilt 
portion of the town. 

East Haven has its green, of the true New England type, a central feature 
in its town layoTit, and well preserved. It gives that air of distinction and 
dignity whidi well represent the age and leisurely development of the com- 
munity. 

Here is one of the finest of Connecticut shores, though it is not fully 
developed. At the southeast corner it holds the historic name of Momauguin, 
with a summer hotel of the same name, and a little to the east is the Mans- 
field. There is a choice stretch of beach, and this is East Haven's principal 
summer resort. A branch trolley line connects it with the trolley which runs 
from New Haven through to Branford. South End has a beach as good and 
even more picturesque, though not .so many have found it. These are the 
remnants of what was, before the division, the oyster raising and seaport town. 
The modified form of sea.shore activity shows change, but not decadence. 



CHAPTER XLII 
GUILFORD 

THE INDEPENDENT ORIGIN YET NEW HAVEN AFFILIATION OF THE FOUNDERS, THE 
ESTABLISHMENT, DEVELOPMENT AND CONSTRUCTION OF THE PLANTATION OF 

MENUNKETUCK 

The symmetrical bomidary of soutliwesteni Middlesex County would be that 
line which runs almost straight south from Lake Pistapaugh at the southeastern 
corner of Wallingford to the Sound. That instead this boundary is the Ham- 
mouasset River involves some history which has a place all its own in New 
Haven County. Guilford is a curious paradox of an entity on the one hand, 
and an integral part of the New Haven district on the other. It was .settled 
independently of New Haven; yet its inclusion, in such disregard of natural 
county lines, in the New Haven county, is sufficient proof of its identitication 
with New Haven. 

At least that much of origin is required for an adequate understanding of 
Guilford as it stands in the commonwealth today. It is a town with all the 
pride of independent pilgrim esta'ilishment. It has deep historic foundations 
that cannot be moved. Its makers of the old stock predominate. Modern Guil- 
ford is a part of the melting pot, too. When they numliered its "men of war" 
in 1917 there was patronymic proof of a dozen widely diii'erent races in its citi- 
zenship, but then and since there has been even stronger evidence of a community 
as united, as American, and soundly dependable as the Guilford that raised a 
regiment in the Revolution, that guarded well its coasts in 1812, that gave with 
unsparing sacrifice of its best manhood to save the Union in the '60s. All 
down the record of the years, from the little company which signed the "join 
ourselves together" covenant with Pastor Whitfield on the voyage to this land 
of promise, to the more than three thousand people of many origins who make 
the Guilford of today, the record is starred with sterling men and true women. 
Some have their names written in the world's halls of fame — and they are not a 
few. But the many have lived the even nobler unsung life of the country town. 
and made that the American field of honor. 

Geographically, Guilford is a substantial town. As it stands today, it has 
an area somewhat in excess of forty-seven square niiks, extending thirteen miles 
from the marshy point of Sachem's Head to the highland boundary of Durham. 
Across its widest part, from Jfoose Hill to where Neck River makes its farthest 

374 




OLD FIRST CHURCH BL1L])1X(4 AND MEC HAXIS:\[ OF OLD TOWN CLOCK. GUILFORD 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 375 

eastward curve, it measures six miles. As Connecticut towns go, it is a land of 
large distances. It is starred all over with place names, many of them suggest- 
ing history. It is a coast town lacking in beach, it has a fine harbor, once the 
home of many coasting vessels and the refuge of more, but seldom visited now by 
more important craft than idle pleasure boats. Mulberry Point and Sachem's 
Head tell of the times when the Indian roamed the marshes and the hills of old 
Menunketuek. Clapboard Hill and Moose Hill have their meanings of a past 
that most have now forgotten. Grim Totoket of Branford overlooks its north- 
ern Itoundary and farther eastward Bluff Head looks down on the interesting 
waters of Lake Quonnipaug, one of the finest bodies of fresh water of the region. 

Time was when Guilford had acres in excess of any town in the state. For 
though by the beginning of the last century most of the two large towns had been 
parceled between their parishes, Guilford and East Guilford remained one politi- 
cal unit until 1826. Up to that time the area of the town was over eighty-seven 
square miles. The towns of Guilford and ]\Iadisou, which then was set off, are 
alike in one peculiarity. As standing since the division, each is a long, narrow 
territory stretching thirteen miles up from the sea to the deep woods of the 
north. Each has a south and a north "society," which form distinct communi- 
ties, having little but voting duties in common, with what amounts to a decided 
break in settlement between. In one way of looking at it, four towns have been 
made out of the Jlcnunketuck which the first settlers acquired from the Indians 
in 1639. 

Guilford is ever loyal to its brethren. It makes no quarrel over the claim 
that its origin, its spirit and purpose, were identical with those of the founders 
of New Haven. So much the more reason, then, why Guilford's individual 
.source should be so shown that he who runs may read. Religious intolerance, 
that same church bigotry that drove Cotton Mather and Thomas Hooker and 
John Davenport to the large room and free air of this New World, sent forth 
Henry Whitfield and his little company of independents. Henry Whitfield's 
house at Oekley in Surrey was a harbor for the persecuted by the zealous Arch- 
bishop Laud. If men like Mather and Hooker and Davenport were not his 
friends before, they were by the time they had come here, and their cause was 
common. Whitfield became a Congregationalist and an independent long before 
he resolved to follow his friends. They had gone, he was lonesome, and the 
light of the searchers of the archbishop was beginning to play on him. His 
friend Fenwick provided a way, and the Whitfield party came. 

Two features of that coming will help to make clear the character of that 
migration and its relation to the other one two years earlier, which terminated 
at Quinnipiac. The first was the covenant which the twenty-five made and signed 
on shipboard. It was a promise to ".join ourselves together, to be helpful one 
to the other, not to desert or leave each other." Therein is revealed the charac- 
ter of the founders. It is a character which Guilford has never lost. 

In the second place, these voyagers deliberately made for Quinnipiac. Theirs 
was the first ship to visit that harbor since the settlers came. It was the first 



376 A MODERN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN 

ship to cuter tlie mouth of the Quinuipiac estuary. And iu their brief stay they 
named the city which was to be. For there is satisfactory evidence that Pastor 
Whitfield, or some other of the discerning in the party, looking about hiiu on 
the broad bay which would hold a thousand ships safe from the storms, and 
landward over the goodly pli'in between the red rocks, called this a "Fayre 
Haven." From that to New Haven was natural and easy. 

The roll of honor of that party has been many times, but not too many times, 
recorded. These are the twenty-five names at the foot of that noble covenant : 

Robert Kitchel, John Bishop, Francis Bushnell, William Chittenden, William 
Leete, Thomas Jones, John Jordan, William Stone, John Hoadley, John Stone, 
William Plane, Richard C4utridge, John Housego, William Dudley, John Par- 
mely, John Mepham, Henry AVhitfield, Thomas Norton, Abraham Cruttenden, 
Francis Chatfield, William Hall, Thomas Naish, Henry Kingnoth, Henry Doude, 
Thomas Cooke. 

There are in Guilford and Madison today abundant fruits of that founding. 
At least eighteen of the twenty-five names are prominently represented in the 
two towns, though such names as Seward, Scranton, Hubbard, Bartlett, Chalker, 
Fowler, Benton, Evarts, Stevens and Blachley or Blatchley, found in the free- 
men's list of 1650, are even more plentiful. It will be found that most of the 
others are on the early tombstones. Those who signed that covenant were faith- 
ful, so far as Providence permitted. 

"They love their land because it is their own," wrote Guilford's poet years 
afterward. The Guilford part of his Connecticut, at least, owned its land by 
right of purchase. For we have the definite record of purchase from the Indians 
of all the territory included in Guilford and Madison, the payment being in 
that same seemingly negligible coin which Shaumpishuh and Montowese accepted 
so readil.v. It was the coin which the Indians loved, and there is no reason to 
doubt that Whitfield and his fellows, as did Davenport and Eaton, paid the 
asked price. 

On such a foundation stands a town high in honor among those of Connecti- 
cut. Laid on a church foundation, its history, from the beginning until now, 
is in no small measure the history of its churches. There was not in Guilford 
so conspicuously as in New Haven the stern rule of the church, but its govern- 
ment was, for the first hundred years of its existence, as truly a theocracy. It 
sensibly followed the leadership of Pastor Whitfield, for it was a wise on^. He 
preached the word of truth ; he showed good political and business acumen. He 
was a man of substance. He gave Guilford in that first year an institution 
which has made for it as much fame, the country over, as anything in its posses- 
sion. It was he who built the famous "Old Stone House," commonly known in 
the histories as "the oldest house now standing in the United States." Halfway 
down the street leading from the green to the sea, row near the railroad station, 
it has stood for the better part of three centuries, and bids fair to stand for as 
many more without impairment. 

But Pa.stor Whitfield, having given the colony a start of twelve vears, felt 




Erected in 1039, now tin 



iil.D ST(JM-: HOUSE, GLILFOIM) 

trenry Wliitfield House, State Museiiii 
now stiindinff in tlie rnite<l .States. 



Tlie oldest stone house 




COilFORT STARR HOUSE, GUILFORD 

Main part purchased by him in 1694 from the heirs of Henry Kingsnorth, twenty-second 
siener Plantation Covenant, by whom it was doubtless built as early as 1645. Second oldest 
house in Guilford. 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 377 

impelled to visit the land of his origin. For some reason or other he did not 
return. The people found for his place the Rev. John Higginson, Harvard grad- 
uate, son of one of the second party of settlers. He was a man of power and 
good leadership, but he came to a difficult succession. His pastorate was termi- 
nated after eight years. Then came Rev. Jaseph Eliot, second son of John Eliot, 
the sainted "apostle to the Indians." It .seems to have been through him that 
the Eliot line came to Guilford, and it has ever since been prominent there. 
Mr. Eliot served the people well and led them wisely for thirty years, dying 
in 1694. 

For seventy-five yeai-s after that Rev. Thomas Ruggles, father and son of the 
same name, occupied the Whitfield pulpit. Those were momentous years for 
the church in many ways. Mr. Ruggles the elder worked with the people for 
thirty-three years, till he yielded to physical infirmity in 1728. ilr. Ruggles 
the younger had a pastorate of forty-two years, but it was not all a peaceful 
time, as we shall see. The Rev. Amos Fowler came to the assistance of Mr. Rug- 
gles before his death, and continued with the church until 1800. After him 
came Rev. Aaron Button, and lived to see substantial beginning of the split over 
aliolition. Then there were forty years of shorter pastorates, until we find 
Rev. Frank Hudson Taylor with the church in 1880, continuing for three years. 
Rev. Edmund March Vittum, from 1884 to 1888, is well remembered, being fol- 
lowed for a year by Rev. Charles H. ilelutosh as stated supply. Rev. Frederick 
E. Snow came in 1891, and has remained for twenty-seven years. 

The early buildings of the church were on the green, the first, in 1643, being 
at the start as bare and cheerless as a barn. It was improved by degrees. They 
partly plastered it in 1668, and later enlarged it with a gallery. A porch was 
built in 1673. But going to church was an all-day task in those days, and even 
with those improvements, the people needed a place where they could get warm 
at noon. So the first "Sabbatli Day house" was built in 1696. In 1713 this 
ancient edifice was replaced by another on the green south of the schoolhouse. 
In 1725 it acquired a steeple, and shortly afterward a bell. As completed, it 
was a strange looking building with thi'ce-story effect, angular and lacking in 
beauty as we deem it, but with a sort of quaint dignity. When the people built 
again in 1830 they abandoned the green for a commanding site on its north side, 
and erected their present beautiful and convenient building. 

The Congregational Church at North Guilford was established in 1725, five 
years after this part of the town had been made a separate society. ^Meanwhile, 
East Guilford had been made a separate society, and had established its church. 
So this was for a time the third church in Guilford, but when East Guilford was 
made Madison in 1826, this became the second. It has had a useful but hardly 
eventful history. Its first pastor was Rev. Samuel Russell, son of that Samuel 
Ru.ssell who had so large a part in the history of Branford and Yale. For 
twenty-one years he led church and community, and that was probably the long- 
est pastorate the church has had. Nearly twenty-five men have led it in the 160 
vears since, among whom we find the lionored North Branford name of 



378 A MODERN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN 

Rev. Fosdick Harrison. It has been the living center of a fine old community, 
for North Guilford in its isolation has depended greatly on its church. For eight 
years, from 1903 to 1911, Rev. E. P. Ayer was its pastor. The present minister 
is Rev. Henry Schlosser. 

The time of Rev. Thomas Ruggles, Jr., with the First Church was starred by 
an unseemly, and it seems to us unnecessary strife which caused two churches 
to grow where one had grown before, but not to edification. It was a family 
squabble. There was a minority in the First Church not content to settle young 
Thomas Ruggles in his father's pulpit. It seems to have been headed by Cap- 
tain Andrew Ward, who thought his son Edmund better fitted for the position, 
and slighted because he did not g<'t it. This was in 1729. The upshot of it was 
an attempt to estalilish what, had it lived, would have been the Fourth Church. 
It was a long struggle, lasting all but eighteen years of a century, and covering 
the time of three pastors after Rev. Edmund Ward. It was ended in 1811 by 
the disappearance of the Fourth Church. 

It was a real division, on a very positive question, which formed the Third 
Church in 1843. One hundred and twenty-three members who believed slavery 
should be abolished for principle's sake broke loved ties and assumed the burden 
of a new cliurcli, and put up a building on the west side of tlie green, calling 
Rev. David Root to be their pastor. Following him in succession were Rev. 
Richard Maiming Chipman, Rev. George IngersoU Wood, Rev. George Mills 
Boynton and Rev. George Wallace Banks, whose long pastorate closed in 1905. 
Since then Rev. Warren D. Bigelow, and for thi- past few years Rev. Herbert D. 
Deetz as supply, have served the church. It has always been a live and pro- 
gressive institution. Its edifice, built in 1844, was remodeled in 1862, and its 
chapel added in 1879. 

Guilford's Protestant Episcopal Church, whose noble gothic granite edifice 
stands on the east side of the green, one of the fine pieces of architecture in the 
town, dates from 1743. For several years after that, however, it was no more 
than the gathering at Nathaniel Johnson's house from week to week of a few 
who preferred that form of worship. Later Rev. Ebenezer Punderson led them. 
and after him Rev. Bela Hubbard, a native of Guilford, was their rector. About 
1751 their first building was set up, to be replaced by their present edifice in 
1836. The most notable period in this church's history has been the quarter 
century from 1881 to 1906, in wliicli Rev. William Given Andrews, teacher, his- 
torian, distinguished citizen, ministered to it. Since him tlie rectors have been 
F. R. Sanford, 1907 to 1909, and Rev. E. L. Wells, from 1909 to 1916. 

St. John's Episcopal Church at North Guilford, established in 1748, has 
found moderate support in a community not tending to grow, and containing 
no more people than a single church might serve. For the ]iast few years it lias 
.joined forces witli Zion Church of North Branford, the two being served by 
temporary rectors. 

For about sixty years following 1808 Guilford had a Baptist Church, due 




i-'JK:sT cu.\(_a;i;i.;ATiONAL church, (juilford 



380 A MODERN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN 

town from Madison and the east, continuing to New Haven by way of Nortli 
Branford. There is a branch line from Guilford green to Stony Creek. 

That green is more than ever in these days the pride of Guilford. It is to 
the town what New Haven's green is to that city. It also has in its time had on 
it two church buildings, four schooUiouses and a hay scales, but now it is clear 
of them all. In size it is about 66 by 29 rods, and contains nearly twelve acres. 

For a town of moderate size — Guilford had 3,001 people in 1910 — it has sub- 
stantial banks. Its savings bank was founded in 1875, and since about 1894 
Capt. Charles Griswold, who comes near to being first in the town's rank of 
citizens, has been 'its financial guardian, tliough E. H. Butler has for some years 
been its president. This bank has deposits of $715,138, and surplus of .1>-40,000. 
Some time after its foundation the Guilford National Bank was established, but 
about 1916, for practical reasons, it was changed into the Guilford Trust Com- 
pany. Of this C. Stowe Spencer is president, and Captain Griswold is treasurer. 
It has $25,000 capital and $15,000 surplus. 

Tlie Guilford Free Library has since 1890 given the people good service, and 
in 1891 a convenient building was erected on Whitfield Street for its use. 
It has 2,400 volumes, and iliss Martha G. Cornell is its librarian. 

After 250 years of life as a residence, under changing ownerships, the ilis- 
tinguished Old Stone House came to its appropriate mission in 1899. The 
Legislature of that year ordained it a state nuiseuni, and provided for the 
appointment by the governor of a body of trustees for its management. It is 
preserved with regard to historical fitness within and without, and is a repos- 
itory for an increasing collection of the state's historical relics and memorabilia. 
The present trustees are : 

Frederick C. Norton, Bristol ; C. Hadlai Hull, New London ; ]\Irs. Godfrey 
Dunscombe, New Haven ; Alice Bradford Bridgenian, Norfolk ; George D. Sey- 
mour. New Haven; Alfred E. Hammer, Branford; Edward C. Seward, Guilford; 
Rollin S. Woodruff, New Haven ; the first selectman of Guilford, ex officio. The 
custodian of the museum is Mrs. ilary H. Griswold of Guilford. 

Guilford's newspapers, for all the town's age, have been confined to the 
modern period. Of several of varying value, one has survived. There was 
the Shore Line Sentinel, an excellent weekly whose publication was begun 
in 1877, but somehow it did not pay. There were later the Guilford Item and 
the Guilford Echo, but they were not of the fit that survive. In 1894 the 
Shore Line Times, which the Rev. E. M. Jerome had founded in Fair Haven 
a few years earlier, was purchased by Charles H. Scholey and brought to 
Guilford. It was the double acquisition by the town of a good newspaper and 
a fine citizen. He has happily succeeded in filling, in just the way that suits 
the good old town and the region round about it, the space that the daily 
newspaper does not fill, and he is gaining the reward his meritorious service 
deserves. 

Guilford has one of the oldest ]\Iasonic organizations in the state — St. 
Alban's lodge, F. & A. M., instituted in 1771. With it is Halleck chapter. 




FdUXDKV OF 1. S. SI'KXfKR'S SONS, IXC. (;L1LF(>1;1) 




TFIE GUILFORD TRUST COMPAXY AND GUILFORD SAVIX(iS BAXK 
Formerly the Guilford X'ational Bank. 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 381 

Royal Arch Masons, 1888. Menunketuck lodge, I. 0. 0. F., dates from 1880. 
Maida Rebekah lodge was instituted in 1895. Guilford also has lodges of 
the N. E. 0. P. and the 0. U. A. M.. and the Royal Arcanum, and there are 
flourishing granges in Guilford and North Guilford. 

One other institution makes Guilford famous throughout the state and be- 
yond. In 1860 the Guilford Agricultural Society was born, and for almost 
half a century it has held annually "the Guilford Fair." It is the great day 
of Guilford's year, the great annual for eastern New Haven county and the 
southern central part of the state. For not only are the fruits and products 
of the town and the region spread out for pride and emulation and instruction. 
Init the people gather and revel in Old Home delight. It is a .joy not to he 
missed. 

First of all, Guilford is agricultural — has been from the beginning, will be, 
doubtless, to the end of the chapter. But it has manufactures that are of 
positive substance. The threads of their sources run liack almost to the time 
of founding, and most of the early ones ai"e memories only. The original 
mechanical industry, the old town mill, will see its third centenary less than 
thirty years hence, but gone are the tanneries, most of the sawmills, the fulling 
mills, which marked the way down to the middle of the last century. Along 
with those is gone the shipbuilding of which Guilford had not a little, and 
most of the boat building. Guilford's coasting trade, in which it led the .shore 
towns at one time, is one of the traditions, and so. except for some efficient 
repair shops, is most of the carriage making of a former time. 

Bat the iron foundry business has held and increased in Guilford, though 
not in number of plants, since the first foundry was established at Jones's 
Bridge in 1847. It lasted there only four years, and in 1851 was moved to 
Pair Street, where it has remained ever since. It was the Massup Foundry 
and ilaehine Shop then, but soon after the business was acquired by Israel 
Stowe Spencer, and in the Spencer family's hands it has since remained. As 
I. S. Spencer's Sons — now his grandsons, as a matter of fact — it still is on 
Pair Street, Guilford's principal industry, ouiploying 100 men or more, still 
turning out a variety of iron, brass and bronze castings. 

In 1868 outside interests represented by J. W. Schermerhorn established 
a plant for the making of school furniture in what had been the old lock factory 
on Water Street. The business lasted only nine years, when the Guilford En- 
terprise Company took the factory and planned to make there a varied line of 
goods from vegetable ivory. That plan also was short lived. So were some 
other enterprises which .succeeded it. but the original business seems to lie con- 
tinued in a manner today by the 0. D. Case Company, which makes school 
furniture supplies. The carriage making industry is represented in the Archi- 
bald Wheel Company, making carriage wheels. 

Guilford tomatoes are almost as widely known as Guilford clams, because 
of the canning industry which was first set in motion in 1881 by the Sachem's 
Head Canning Company. There is also now the Knowles-Lombard Company 



382 A MODERN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN 

ill tlie same business, and together they keep the farmers in Guilford and 
the towns around raising tomatoes by the hundred tons for their increasing 
industry. 

Leete's Island, named from Governoi- Leete and his descendants, and form- 
erly in part a corner of Stony Creek, is the home of one of the greatest granite 
(juarrying industries in the country, successful through the enterprise of the 
late John Beattie, and continued by tlie Beattie Quarry Company. Liberty 
continues to enlighten the world from Bedloe's Island on an enduring fouiula- 
tion, for every stone in her pedestal came from tlie Beattie (luarries. So did 
all the stone in scores of breakwaters and other sulistantial constructions all 
along the coast and inland, and the quarry, with its seemingly inexhaustible 
supply, keeps busy in its jiroduction hundreds of Guilford people. 

So is the story of Guilford the story of men w'ho for near three centuries 
have been faithful to the covenant of the Whittield pilgrims, and have worked 
together. There have been some great individuals among them. From Gov- 
ernor Leete to Col. Samuel Hill, whose prominence was such that "like Sam 
Hill" has become a proverb in this and many lands, from John Bishop down 
to the unseen makers of the town today, it has been a wonderful company. 
Some of its members have been incidentally mentioned. Guilford owes much 
to men like Whitfield, Ruggles, Andrews and Banks and Snow in her pulpits, 
to men like the Leetes, the Chittendens, the Spencers, the Nortons and the 
Sewards in her public affairs and industry, to the GrLswolds, the Monroes and 
the Knowleses in her banking and trade, to Alvan Talcott and Gideon Perry 
Reynolds, to George H. Beebe and Redfield B. West in medicine, to H. Lynde 
Harrison and George E. Beers in the law, to the Parmelees and the Dudleys 
and the Fowlers and a host of others who around her borders have seen that 
seed time and harvest did not fail to do their perfect work. 




TllE ACADIAX HOUSE, GUILFORD 

Here several Acadian peasants from Grand Pre, Nova Scotia, were sheltered by the town, 

having been put ashore from British ships in 1755. 




THE "liLACK HOUSE," GUILFOKJJ 
Painted black in 1793, when the owner, Nicholas Loysel, a Frenchman, learned of 
beheading of Louis XVI of France. Never repainted until recently. 



the 



CHAPTER XLIII 
TWO SONS OF GUILFORD 

FITZ-GREENE HALLECK, CONNECTICUT'S GKE.VTEST POET, AND IlLS WORK WILLIAM 

HENRY HARRISON MURRAY, PREACHER, WRITER, DISCOVERER OP THE ADIRONDACKS 
AND THE PERFECT HORSE. 

The tine old town of Guilford, of which it has been said that "never was 
there a settlement formed of more rigid Puritans, * * * and there is no 
town in New England where the peculiarities of that noble race have been more 
faithfully transmitted from father to son," has had in its three centuries a 
multitude of noteworthy sons and daughters, whose stories have, in. the main, 
been ably told. Two stand out, however, as worthy of every opportunity of 
the historian, as well as having deserved more than has been given them. IJoth 
were men of genius. In one his native town avows on every occasion its pride, 
but proves it none too well. In the other, it seems, the place of his birth but 
meagerly confesses its pride, and seeks the while to hide it. 

Fitz-Greene Halleck and William Henry Harrison Murray, born in different 
centuries but living and doing their work in the same century, seem never- 
theless, to the impression of the present dweller in Guilford, to have been 
"in two distant ages bom." For the former had lived his life and done his 
work, and passed into a retirement whose modesty made it amount to obscurity, 
before the latter came into the public view. The "glory time" of the former 
was in the early decades of the nineteenth century ; that of the latter was in 
the 'seventies and 'eighties, after the kindly poet had vanished from our 
mortal eyes. Strangely contrasting in many other ways they were ; differing 
in merit and in the praise of men. Yet somehow the town of their liirth 
lacked, and by that token lost, something of understanding of each of them in 
his time. It may, then, be permissible in the present writer, who has known 
one in the spirit, and the other somewhat in the flesh but more in the spirit, 
to record here at least a tribute of appreciation to each. 



Thomas Hicks, national artist, a painter of portraits who was better known 
to a generation to which he gave a likeness of its idol, Henry Ward Beecher, 
left one painting which ought to be, and some day may be, the possession 

383 



384 A MODERN HISTORY OF xNEW HAVEN 

of the town of Guilford. It is the clear-cut, geutle, keenly intellectual yet 
kindly face of a "natural aristocrat." With it, in a hand whose grace and care 
betoken a school of penmanship as past as the old daguerreotype, goes well the 
chaste signature, "Fitz-Greene Halleek. " The whole is a study of rare char- 
acter. One reads in it that charm which we call "a gentleman of the old 
school." 

There was no snobbishness in the insistence of Fitz-Greene Halleek to his 
friend James Grant Wilson that "none but gentlemen were born in his native 
town of Guilford, their mechanics and laborers all being importations from 
New Haven and elsewhere." He meant it, and he meant it well, as a compli- 
ment to Guilford. How he loved Guilford, how he loved Connecticut as he 
saw it in the face of characteristic Guilford, is well told in his poem "Con- 
necticut. ' ' 

And yet it was in New York, where he lived for thirty-seven years, where he 
did his main life work — or so he seemed to esteem it — where he made his foi'tune, 
where he wrote practically all his important poems, that he felt at home. He 
credited New York with his inspiration. The credit really was due, it appears, 
to the association of such giants of American literature as William Cullen 
Bryant, James Fenimore Cooper, Washington Ir\'ing, Nathaniel Parker Willis 
and Edgar Allan Poe, all of whom were his contempoi'aries in New York, all 
of whom he must have known more or less intimately. Out of New York he 
was out of his element, awa.v from his literary stimulus, therefore virtually 
unproductive. It should be noticed, however, that some of his best work was 
done immediately after his return from Europe in 1822, so that to his experi- 
ence abroad may be attributed not a little of his inspiration. 

Halleek was born in Guilford June 8, 179(t; in a house on the east side of 
the green — not the Halleek house of his later residence there, better identified 
with him. The blood of the Pilgrim Fathers was in his veins, but an even better 
strain came from his descent, through his mother, from the sainted "Apostle to 
the Indians." Rev. John Eliot. It was good stork, and it did not detei-iorate 
in his line, though in his direction it ended with him. His youth and his 
school brought out revelations of the man that was to be. When impulse ruled 
over prudence, he wrote poetry before he was ten. When frankness was 
stronger than modesty, he fancied himself a poet to be. It was in those early 
days that he drew up in an old writing book, with what we may imagine to 
have been some promise of the fine script that made him so valuable — in an- 
other line — in later years, an imaginary title-page: "The Poetical Works of 
Fitz-Greene Hallock. " (That was two years before, for some reason which 
does not fully appear, he changed the spelling of his surname to Halleek.) 
Could this have been tlie same person who twenty-two years later published 
an edition containing four such poems as "Marco Bozzaris," "Alnwick Castle," 
"Burns" and "Connecticut," with no mark whatever of the identity of the 
writer? Dr. Wilson, who sa.vs that "Connecticut" was written "in the fine 
old mansion where Halleek resided for so manv years" (the well known Halleek 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 385 

house at the south^^-est corner of the green), seems to imply that its writing 
was after Halleck permanently returned to live in Guilford, yet here it is in 
the edition of 1827. 

This beautiful (one nice lady is on record as having called hiiu "the 
brightest and sweetest looking boy I ever saw") and ambitious young school- 
boy, who began his education at six, completed it at fourteen. Yale college, 
toward which he could not possibly have been without inclination, was only 
sixteen miles away. Surely its trea.sures of literature and its depths of in- 
spiration must have been more to his liking than the groceries and hardware 
and drygoods in the general store of his kinsman, Andrew Eliot, yet to the 
latter place he went, without. a murmur of which we have heard. Wealth 
was rare in the Guilford of those days, and Israel and ]\Iary Halleck were 
plain people of plain fortunes. But he was in this store a "clerk" in the 
classic rather than the common meaning. The place was his business college, 
and toward business he must have had, judging from his adherence to the one 
main course all through his active life, fully as much of a bent as for literature. 
He could hardly have known, at the start, the truth that while literature might 
be fine as an amusement, the mercantile pursuit brought bread and butter. 
But he must have observed that all through his experience in New York. Per- 
haps the precocious boy had, after all, an "eye for the main chance." It was 
an instinct not unknown in Guilford. For the boy who entered Andrew Eliot's 
store at fifteen graduated from that store and from the town six years later. 
Perhaps we may read between the lines of this the generally suppressed fact 
that when he "became of age" he took the reins in his own hands, and drove 
in the way of his ambition. 

He had visited New York, which in 1808, though a city of only 90,000, 
was nevertheless the largest in the country, when he was eighteen. Apparently 
he caught the fever. He made friends in that brief stay, as we can easily un- 
derstand from what we know of the friendships of his later life. We can easily 
imagine that he exerted on them a fascination similar to the effect, ten years 
earlier, on the dear lady who had so openly succumbed to his childish beauty. 
They made it eas}% possibl}% for the apt youth with six years' experience in 
single and double entiy bookkeeping, and six years of practical basiness, to 
come to New York and secure a place in the counting house of the young 
Quaker banker Jacob Barker. That was the position he got, and with that same 
banker he remained, in steadily improving positions, for twenty years. When 
he left, it was to go to no less a service than that of John Jacob Astor, then 
the greatest of New York and American merchants. His standing there is 
well summed up in the fact that he received from the great merchant, after 
a service of sixteen years, a retirement annuity of two hundred dollars a year. 
It might not have been much in New York; it was, at that time, a fortune for 
Guilford, and to Guilford he wisely retired for the remainder of his life. 

Fifty-eight seems to us in our time a youthful age for retirement. But 
Halleck had lived well and faithfully, and by competent standards, his busi- 



386 A MODERN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN 

ness service had been loBg. At all events, he had earned retirement, and he 
had received his due. So in that early time he set the wise example of retiring 
to the country as soon as one could leave the city. It was a great and 
strenuous periotl in the country's history — those years from 1848 to 1857 in 
Guilford. But he had found a quiet haven in the town of his birth and love, and 
"along the cool, sequestered vale of life" he seems to have' "kept the even 
tenor of his way." He visited New York once a year, renewing and keeping 
fresh the old acquaintances. He wrote little. He seems to have been content 
to rest upon his laurels — for by that time the veil of anonymity behind which 
he had earlier concealed himself had been effectively snatched away. He seems 
to have deemed it better to rest content with what he had written than to spoil' 
the effect by later poems which he felt must be inferior. Apparently "Young 
America," published in 1844, only three years before his death, was the most 
important writing of those years of retirement — all, in fact, except a few trans- 
lations from the French, German and Italian. 

The recollections of those who knew the poet, and anything like a careful 
study of his writings, unite in testimony that humor was a strong element in 
his makeup. It was one of his pet jokes to refer friends who became inquisitive 
as to his origin to Joshua XI -.17 and XII :7, both verses making mention of 
"Mount Halak. " He asserted that Dr. Robinson, the distinguished traveler, 
had often visited this "old homestead," and reported that it still bore the old 
name, or sometliiug to the .same effect. The "Croaker" papers, which he wrote 
while in New York in conjunction with Joseph Rodmaai Drake, were of course 
the best examples of his humor, but lost .something through their anonymous 
publication. His "" Fanny" was the keenest sort of a satire. His character- 
istic "Nutmegger" 



^DO^ 



"Would shake hands witji a king upon his throne, • 
And think it kindne.ss to his majesty." 

Humor and modesty, and honest common sense as well, combined in his answer 
to the admirer who wrote to him the year before his death for a view of his 
"country seat," to be reproduced in a privately printed edition of "Fanny." 
He was grateful for the compliment, but he must decline. ' ' For although born 
here in Connecticut, where, as Lord Byron says of England, 'men are proud 
^to be,' I shall never cease to 'hail,' as the sailors say, from yo«r good city of 
New York, of which a residence of more than fifty years made me a citizen. 
There I always considered myself at home, and elsewhere but a visitor. If, 
therefore, you wish to embellish my poem with a view of my country seat 
(it was literally mine every summer Sunday for years), let it be taken from the 
top of Weehawk Hill, overlooking New York, to whose scenes and associations 
the poem is almost exclusively devoted." 

His friendships were among the finest of our age, and to that he has left the 
rarest testimony. Whether he was David or Jonathan, tliat was the nature of 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 387 

his friendship for Joseph Rodman Drake, for whom his love surpassed the love 
of woman. No man and no friendship have a nobler comment than 

"Green be the turf above thee, 

Friend of my better days ! 
None knew thee but to love thee. 

None named thee but to praise." 

If Halleck had any but male love affairs, his biographers and his neighbors 
alike have singularly overlooked them. His love for woman seems to liave 
wholly satisfied itself on his .sister Maria, his relation with whom has been com- 
pared to that of Charles and JIary Lamb. She was his faithful correspondent 
during his years in New York, his constant companion during the years of his 
retirement in Guilford, and survived him by only three years. Of his published 
poems, perhaps '"Magdalen," in the 1827 edition, comes nearest to expressing 
the love sentiment which so rapt an admirer of Burns might be expected to 
retlect. And of that he disposes in a characteristic note: "These lines were 
written for a love-stricken young officer on his way to Greece. The reader will 
have the kindness to presume that he died there." 

When, somewhere about 1822, he wrote it, "ilarco Bozzaris" was his great- 
est poem. Heard against the battle din of today, it rings as true. The last 
words of the Greek hero, as Halleck quotes them in an explanatory note, "To 
die for liberty is a pleasure and not a pain," express an eternal principle. That 
same element in Burns was what appealed to Halleck, and to it he paid peer- 
less tribute in his brief elegy. And every son of Connecticut should know by 
heart the immortal tribute which Connecticut's greatest poet paid to his state. 
New York, city of fortune and fame, place where he had found life's richest 
experience and life's sweetest friends, had won him, so that henceforth he was 
but a visitor elsewhere. Of those seenes and friends he could write in his 
closing year : 

"I hope thou wilt not banish hence 

These few and fading flowei"s of mine, 

But let their theme be their defense, 

The joy, the love, the frankincense 
And fragrance o' Lang Syne." 

But of Connecticut he wrote, albeit at an earlier time : 

"And there their hospitable fires burn clear. 

And there the lowliest farmhouse hearth is graced 

With manly hearts, in piety sincere. 

Faithful in love, in honor stern and chaste, 

In friendship warm and true, in danger brave. 
Beloved in life, and sainted in the grave." 



388 A MODERN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN 

To the Guilford and viciuity of this time, Halleck seems but a distant vision. 
It was difficult even to the schoolboy of a generation ago to realize that a poet 
worthy "to have his pieces spoken in school" trod these familiar paths and sat 
within these wonted walls. True, the compilers of the school readers used in 
Guilford and the towns around at that time had done fairly well. Few of 
them, as early as that, had presumed to omit "Marco Bozzaris" from their con- 
tents. They builded, thereby, better than they knew. 

"Strike — for the green graves of your sires; 
God — and your native land." 

was a stronger recruiting appeal than the most stirring poster ever printed, a 
better incentive to patriotism than all the speeches of all the "four minute" 
men. The Guilford schoolboy of that time knew little about the friendship 
between Halleck and Joseph Rodman Drake, but he did know 

"When Freedom from her mountain height 
Unfurled her standard to the air," 

and somehow saw the connection. It was little enough that Halleck wrote, and 
less that his neighbors of those days had the opportunity to see of it, but 
Guilford never failed while Halleck lived of the consciousness that a prophet 
was in its midst, and should not be permitted to lose it now. 

Guilford might have realized it in a sight it saw and words it heard three 
years after all that was mortal of the poet was laid in Aldcrhrook cemetery. 
It was the eightieth anniversary of his birth, and June crowned with summer 
warmth and glory an assemblage such as Guilford perhaps had never seen be- 
fore, and may not see again. Bryant, Longfellow and Whittier were among the 
galaxy of poets and literary men who came to dedicate the granite obelisk over 
Halleek's grave. Bayard Taylor made an eloquent and appreciative address. 
A lyric tribute to Halleck by Oliver Wendell Holmes was read. It was a thrill- 
ing revelation of the place which the modest poet, who has Iwen worthily called 
the greatest of the first ciuarter of the nineteenth century in America, held in 
the esteem of his discerning contemporaries. It was and is meet that the town 
of his birth should be reminded, as Whittier reminded the nation seven years 
later, when the President of the United States and his staff joined the great 
literary men of the country in unveiling a statue to Halleck in Ceutr^il Park 
at New York, that 

"New hands the wires of song may sweep, 

New voices challenge fame; 
But let no moss of years o'ercreep 

The lines of Halleek's name." 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 389 

II 

When genius climbs the heights to the temple of success, the world strews 
in its path the palm branches of extravagant adulation. When genius goes down 
to the depths of seeming failure, the same world has only disparagement, or the 
worse damnation of faint praise, to otfer, and over the grave of former successes 
the only epitaph it has to write is "failure," without qualitication. 

The extremes of this experience had come to William Henry Harrison 
Murray when on March 3, 1904, he closed at old Guilford a remarkable career. 
He was born on April 26, 18-40, in a little farmhouse back in the woods of 
Guilford — born with a love of learning and of nature. In thirty years he had 
risen by the regular steps to be pastor of one of the leading churches in New 
England, with an income of $15,000 a year, with thousands crowding each 
Sunday to hear his eloquence, with a reputation as a pulpit orator almost ap- 
proaching that of Beecher, known and admired by thousands more through his 
books — his praise in the mouths of all who knew him. Thirteen years later he 
was running a small restaurant in Jlontreal, himself acting as cook, poor, dis- 
credited, nearly forgotten by the thousands who praised him in his fame. And 
twenty-one years after that he died in the Guilford house where he was born, 
having spent there in obscurity, though in peace and comparative happiness, 
the last eleven years of his strange life. 

The section of Guilford in which the Murray home stands is over three 
miles from the shore, and is a part of a school district in Madison. It was much 
with Madison, therefore, that Murray's .early life was associated. There were 
his boyhood a.ssoeiates, and some of his later manhood friendships. In the 
rural surroundings of his early life his deep love of nature, the grandest feature 
of his character, was developed. To the northward from his home stretched 
miles of then practically unlirokcn woods. Westward and eastward the land 
sloped to valleys through which ran dashing brooks, called rivers by the custom 
of the neighborhood. Southward, from some high portions of his father's 
farm, he could view broad stretches of the waters of the Sound, almost four 
miles away, shimmering in the summer sun or stirred by the storms of winter. 
His love for nature, thus born, moved him to explore all the lovely spots of his 
boyhood environment, and when later he had the opportunity it led him forth, 
seeking new worlds of beauty to conquer, to the discovei-y of the Adirondacks. 
And his discovery of the Adirondacks led to the best of those writings which are 
his rich legacy to -the world. 

On his father's farm, also, Murray formed that keen love for "the perfect 
horse" which was another side of his nature — was at once his uplift and his 
downfall. The zest for learning was born in the man. At fourteen he had 
devoured all the reading within his reach — there were no Carnegie libraries in 
those days — and had determined to go to college. It was his ambition to he a 
great, public speaker, to hold audiences spellbound by his eloquence, to give 
to eager listeners the message of nature and of nature's God which burned 



390 A MODERN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN 

within him. His associates in school remember him as a brilliant, restless lad, 
who soared where others plodded, a dreamer of visions they did not understand. 

Ten years, and his ambition was on the eve of realization. At twenty -two 
he i-eceived his A. B. from Yale. At twenty-four he was graduated from Yale 
Theological School, full of promise for a brilliant career in the ministry. His 
fame as a speaker had already begun to spread, and he at once received a call to 
the Congregational Church in Greenwich, Connecticut. He served there two 
years, then went to the First CUiurch of Meriden. But by this time he was too 
well known to long remain in even a church of that size. Presently Park Street 
Church of Boston called him to eminent position and a salary of $8,000 a year ; 
his ambition hea>'d the call. H« was hardly twenty-eight then, but at the height 
of his ability as a pulpit orator. His masterly eloquence was undeniable, his 
delivery was superb and his voice like the music of deep toned bells. He was 
a man of more than average height, with a knightly erectness of bearing that 
eame of conscious power, and a personality that charmed all who came near 
him. Thus he was fitted to be a popular idol, and such he presently was. The 
meml)ership of Park Street Church sprang to more than 1,200, its audiences 
grew beyond its seating capacity. Wherever he spoke the people came in multi- 
tudes to liear him. He numliered legions of friends in Boston, and added to 
their number wherever he went. 

The friends and neighbors of his boyhood knew and rejoiced in his success. 
Nor did he forget them. He loved to keep in touch with his early surroundings. 
His last appearance in the pulpit of the church which he as a boy had often at- 
tended in Madison is well remembered. by the people of the town. This was the 
pulpit which, a little more than ten years before, Rev. Samuel Fiske, delightful 
"Dunne Browne," as he was widel^v known by his writings, had left to serve and 
die in defense of the Union. This was Mr. Murray's first appearance there 
since he had reached the crest of his fame, and great was the rush to hear him. 
The fine old church was crowded to its doors, and many in the multitude, be it 
known, were less than regular attendants. They heard a sermon clothed in 
words of power and charm, and went away as under a spell. 

Murray 's discovery of the Adirondacks dates back to his pastorate at Green- 
wich. A year or two later he wrote his book "Adventures in the Wilderness," 
which brought both the Adirondacks and the man to national attention. The 
hundreds who could afford expensive vacations began to seek the wilderness for 
their summer recreation, and the thousands who couldn't did the next best 
thing— they read the books. This first book, "Adirondack Tales," which soon 
followed, and others of his early works had a great sale, and brought a con- 
siderable income to the writer. At once be became known as "Adirondack 
Murray." The name clung to him all his life and stands for his memorial. 
He never was otherwise than proud of it, and he never had reason for disclaim- 
ing it. The inspiration of his highest ideals came from these virgin forests, in 
some of which his was the first white man 's foot to tread. 

Murray's income from various sources in the later years of his pastorate 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY :»1 

* 
at Boston has been estimated at $15,000 a year. It is unlikely that anyone 

knows exactly what it was, least of all Murray himself, who had a very dim 
idea of amount and value of money. But he thought he had enough to carry 
out one of his early ambitions, establish a farm for the breeding of superior 
horses. The old place at Guilford was in his possession, and there he worked 
out his plans. He put up two great barns, one of them an equine palace, 
for some of the choicest of his pedigreed pets, the other a large, well lighted and 
comfortably appointed stable capable of accommodating twenty or more horses. 
He erected a windmill to In-ing running water to the barns. He had his own 
blacksmith shop and wagon repair establishment. He laid out a trotting course 
near his great barn, and spent hundreds of dollars on it, though it was never 
completed. Incidentally, he built a deer park, and stocked it with Adirondack 
beauties. At these barns he had at one time from ten to twenty of the finest 
horses to be found in New England, with pedigrees running back to Dexter 
or Ham1)leton or even Messenger. A)nong them were such well known stars 
as Live Oak, Brandy wine, Adirondack and Lady Messenger, all with the bluest 
blood and fine trotting records. They had fancy values, too, at least in the 
Murray inventoi-y. He claimed to have refused an offer of $20,000 for Adiron- 
dack, and he was said to have paid nearly half of that for some of the other 
prize stallions on his list. It is needless to say that forty years ago these were 
high prices for horses. Nor is it necessary to point out that this stock farm, 
with its heavy outgo and very slight income, with its outfit of trainers, stable- 
men, blacksmiths and farm helpers, was an inevitably fatal drain on a man 
without an independent fortune. Murray lacked the business acumen to see 
where it was sure to land him. Had his salary been twice what it was, he 
could not long have stood the demands made upon it. But while it lasted, this 
stock farm did good things for the farmers of the vicinity, in scattering through 
the section scores of young horses, bred from the Murray farm and the Murray 
stock, of really superior blood. 

But the collapse of the Murray farm and the Murray fame came near 
together. Forty-five years ago "libei-ality" of any sort in a New England 
Congregational minister was far less tolerated than it is today. The deacons 
of Murray's Boston church did not so much mind the reputation their pastor 
had as an explorer in the wilderness, they could stand the soubriquet "Adiron- 
dack," but when he came to be more widely known as a horseman than he had 
been as a preacher, they began to squirm. He wrote a book on horse training, 
"The Perfect Horse" — and it's a sensible work of its kind, too — while he was 
pastor at Park Street. He became a frequenter of race meets, an associate of 
racing men. He appeared on the streets of Boston, not in frock coat and tall 
hat and white tie, but with a short coat, his trousers tucked in the tops of his 
boots and a soft felt hat. He drove four-in-hand, he raced horses with the 
sports, some of them not too immaculate of reputation, on the "mill dam." All 
this might have been borne, however, for Murray was really beloved by the 
people of his church, but the climax that could not be tolerated came when the 



392 A MODERN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN 

strictly orthodox noted signs of '•liberality"' in the preacher's doctrine. It has 
never been shown that Mr. JIurray preached anything more radical than is 
accepted without a murmur from scores of the leading preachers of today, but 
those times were different, and he was ahead of his times. There began to be 
criticism from the conservative. Ever sensitive and independent, he revolted at 
the first breath of fault, and resigned from Park Street church in 1874. Doctrinal 
differences, however, were overlooked in the separation. His friends and admirers 
in Boston felt and knew that the real reason he left the pulpit was his love for 
the horse. They might lose him from Park Street Church, but they would not 
let him leave Boston. By thousands they rallied to him with promises of sup- 
port if he would establish an independent church. He never formally did this, 
but for three years longer he preached at Music Hall, across the street from his 
former pulpit, to larger audiences than he had ever known. 

But rumor had chosen him for a shining mark. It hinted social scandal. 
His prestige waned a little; so did his income. But his expenses kept steadily 
increasing. Then creditors began to fear, and to press for settlements. The 
combination was too much for his sensitive spirit. He was by no means a 
bankrupt. He was the possessor of a great deal of valuable property. He had 
hosts of friends who would have helped him with advice, with intervention with 
his creditors, even with financial assistance. He stopped to think of none of 
these things. Taking counsel only with his pride, he left everything and dis- 
appeared. The possessions he left behind disappeared almost as suddenly. 
Real and alleged creditors seized movable property at their will. There was 
some sort of a settlement, but it was in every way against the owner. When 
years later- he returned to the old place, only the buildings and a part of the 
farm were left. 

For some time after that ilurray's friends lost sight of him. Then he was 
found at San Antonio, Texas, running a sawmill, it was said. About 1882 he 
went to Montreal and estal)lished the "Snow Shoe" restaurant, of which he was 
proprietor and cook. His friends thought then he had reached the foot of the 
ladder. So he had, and soon after he began to climb toward his former position. 
He took up writing again, and some of his best books were produced in these 
later years. In 1886 he went to England to study finance. On his return he 
traveled through New England and the South and West lecturing and reading 
from his books. About 1892 he made a satisfactory settlement with his creditors 
and recovered his old place in Guilford, where he retired and spent the 
remainder of his life. 

The Murray of this retirement was a disappointment to some who had known 
him in former days. Convinced that he was wholly misunderstood, he had 
soured on the world, and he developed what seemed like strange eccentricities. 
His old neighbors still tell tales about the way he neglected the old homestead, 
so different from his former sedulous care for it. He was letting nature be his 
decorator in those days. But for all that, those who came closest to him in his 
sunset years testify that he retained that same courtliness, that same warmth 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 393 

of hospitality and of friendship which made him so loved in the days when 
fortune smiled and the world woi'shipped at his feet. Here in his old home, with 
the wife and children of his love he spent his closing j'ears, writing little, doing 
little, simply resting amid the surroundings of his youth's aspirations and his 
heart's desire. Here, after his experience with the world's storms, he found a 
haven of peace. 

As Murray's addre.sses and writings are rich in anecdotes, so he was a fruit- 
ful source of tales illustrative of his personality. One which a former driver for 
him tells well pictui'es the dare-deviltry of the man. "While he was pastor at 
Boston and ran the stock farm at Guilford he spent much of his weeks at the 
latter place. It was his custom to take what was called the midnight express 
for Boston at Guilford on Sunday mornings (the through expresses stopped at 
Guilford for water in those days). One Sunday morning when the skj' was 
black as ink and the air w-as thick with coming rain Murray left his farm for 
the four-mile drive to the station. It was late, and they were nearly a mile 
from the station when the whistle of the approaching train sounded through the 
night. One of his swiftest horses was in front of them, and the driver was 
already setting the fastest pace he dared in the darkness, but when Murray 
heard that whistle he said: "Let me take the reins." 

"But, Mr. Murray," remonstrated the driver, "we are going faster than is 
safe now. You can't see a thing, and you'll upset us and bi-eak both our necks." 

"Can't help it," was the laconic reply. "I must be in Boston at 10:30 this 
morning, dead or alive." 

And while the shuddering driver gripped the seat and remembered his sins, 
the man who was used to shooting without a tremor the rapids of Adirondack 
streams in a birch bark canoe put his blooded steed into a pace better than 2 :30, 
and started on a race with the approaching train. Through the muddy streets 
of the unlighted village they dashed, grazing trees at the roadside, skipping 
around corners on two wheels, and pulled up at the station just in time to allow 
the preacher to catch on the rear step of the departing train. The congregation 
at Boston never knew how near they came to being disappointed that day. 

Another story which Murray was wont to tell as a joke on himself, is sug- 
gestive of the environment in which he raced horses on the "mill dam'' at 
Boston, as well as of the democracy of the man. Any man with a horse capable 
of giving him a "brush" was a good enough companion for ]\Iurray when he 
was on the speedway. One whom he met there often was a well known Boston 
sport of none too good private character. But he owned a fine horse, and so 
many contests did the two have that they became well acquainted, as horsemen 
go, though neither knew the other's name. Least of all did the sport know that 
the man who drove such fine trotters was one of the leading dominies of Boston. 
One day the two met under different circumstances. It was on one of the prom- 
inent streets of the city, and the sport, arrayed in the most correct of afternoon 
dress, was walking with a lady. Murray, alone, was in short coat, top boots and 
soft hat, as was his custom. As they passed, Murray raised his hat and made a 



394 A MODERN HISTORY OP NEW HAVEN 

courtly bow to his quondam friend of tlie "mill dam," but the other returned 
no sign. The next day they met again as horsemen, whereupon the sport pulled 
up and spoke thus to the clergyman: "See here, you and I meet out here, have 
our friendly brushes and are good fellows together. That's all right. But 
when I am walking on Tremont Street with a lady I've got to be particular 
whom I know, and you needn't bother to bow to me; see?"" And the joke was so 
good that Murray wouldn 't spoil the effect by telling the fellow who he was. 



The friends of his early and his later years, the associates and admirers of 
the man in his time of triumph, some time since lost the magnetic human touch, 
the inspiring friendship, the cheering optimism, of the living man. They are 
memories only, but he is not dead. In the words which he set down for men he 
lives still— lives to move to alternate laughter and tears all with eyes to read 
and souls to appreciate his writings. Next to the privilege of having known the 
man is that of touching him through his books. None save a man inspired 
could have thought such thoughts as his, or clothed them with such words of 
lasting life. He dwelt above the mists of the practical and commonplace, and 
from his mountain tops saw visions which are revealed only to the few. For 
him who has never explored the treasures of these writings of "Adirondack" 
Murray there is the blessing of a lifetime in store. These are more than 
"Adirondack Tales." more than "Adventures in the Wilderness." These 
simple stories, as they seem at first, run the whole gamut of human emotions. 
There is description that thrills, the most delicate and effective humor, pathos 
that moves to tears, philosophy that makes one ponder, revei^ence that uplifts 
the soul. No one who reads these books understandingly is ever the same again. 
Henceforth there dwells within him a deeper appreciation of all things noble 
and true, a keener eye for the sublime and the ridiculous, a reverent love for 
nature and its Creator. These books voice the eternal truths of life and love, 
and he who wrote them had been touched with high inspiration. 

Nor should their rank as literature be as neglected as it seems to have been. 
Our time has seen few^ better exponents of the possibilities of the English 
language than he was at his best. It was one of his highest aims to be such. As 
he put it: "I regard the English langaiage as the most facile and noblest 
medium of expressing human thought and feeling ever used on earth. He who 
knows how to write and speak the English language in purity, with correctness 
and finished forcefulness, must be admitted to be a scholar of the highest rank. 
And he w'ho cannot do this, no matter to what other knowledge he has come, 
lacks the cultivation of finished scholarship." In the light of these words, read 
this example of how Murray could use the "noble medium" at his best, and 
.judge of how its author should be rated : 

"0 memory! Thou tuneful bell that ringeth on forever, friend at our feasts 
and friend, too, let us call thee, at our burial, what music can equal thine 1 For 
in thy mystic globe all tunes abide — the birthday note for kings, the marriage 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 395 

peal, the funeral knell, the gleeful jingle of merry mirth, and those sweet 
chimes that float our thoughts, like fragrant ships upon a fragrant sea, toward 
heaven — all are thine! Ring on, thou tuneful bell; ring on, while these glad 
ears may drink thy melody ; and when thy chimes are heard by me no more, 
ring loud and clear above my grave that peal that echoes to the heavens, and 
tells the world of immortality, that those who come to mourn may check their 
tears and say, 'Why do we weep? He liveth still.' " 

Those tales of the woods, for the great bulk of Murray's writing has the sur- 
roundings of primitive nature for its setting, voice the philosophy of the man. 
No one can read aright "The Story the Keg Told Me" without being impressed 
by its depth of truth, truth seldom told as impressively. Then there is the deep 
pathos of "The Man Who Didn't Know Jluch. " and a vein of mystery as well. 
This latter weird force shows in many of the Adirondack tales, such as that which 
tells of the phantom of the lake. One story, almost his latest, stands by itself 
in merit and magnificence. "JIamelons" is more than a story, it is a prose 
poem. Mr. Murray said that he spent eight years of work on this book, and the 
investment was a wise one. Let him who would study the rare possibilities, the 
delicate shades, of this wonderful language of ours read "Mamelons"' and jts 
companion story "Ungava. " 

But of all the agents which give these stories human interest the greatest is 
John Norton the Trapper. The neighborhood in which Muri-ay was born con- 
tained so many Nortons that it was called Nortontown. Norton, a name familiar 
to tJie writer from earliest association, was ever a favorite with him. It is a good 
name, for as he says, "who does not know that the ancestors of the Nortons came 
over in the Mayflower." Perhaps John Norton is a portrait of some real person, 
but more likely he is an ideal, for certainly no writer or painter ever drew a 
nobler picture of God's masterpiece, an unspoiled man. In the mouth of John 
Norton the writer has put his richest pathos, his most delicious humor, his 
deepest philosophy — often a combination of all three in one passage. The 
reader learns to love the old man as a friend, to long to meet him and feel the 
cordial grip of his hand, to know the hospitality of his camp fire. And when 
the trapper, alone in his silent cabin after a day of good deeds, has twined 
wreaths of evergreen about the pictures of his loved and lost, reminders of the 
romance and the tragedy of his life, and standing before them sighs, "I miss 
them so!" one longs to reach out to the man the hand of sympathy, and mingle 
tears with his. Dear old John Norton ! Your homely wisdom and noble passions 
speak best the character of the man who pictured you, tell best how true to the 
ideal was his human heart. May you live long and travel far to proclaim to 
men and women the great truths of life, to teach them the beautifid w^ays of God 
and nature. 

The mortal part of this man of vision rests beneath an old tree near the 
liomestead in Nortontown where he was born and where he died. His rare spirit 



396 A MODERN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN 

lives on iu a grander existence, where they understand and appreciate. For us 
who linger in the paths he trod his living message, the message of a- true 
humanity, rings on across the years: "As years go on and heads get gray — 
how fast the guests do go ! Touch hands, touch hands with those that stay. 
Strong hands to weak, old hands to young. The false forget, the foe forgive ; for 
every guest will go and everj- fire burn low and cabin empty stand. Forget, 
forgive! Touch hands." 



CHAPTER XLIV 
MADISON 

EAST GUILFORD AND NORTH BRISTOL BEFORE THEIR SEPARATION PROM GUILFORD, 
THEIR DEVELOPMENT AND HISTORY AS DIVIDED PARTS OF AN UNUSUAL CONNEC- 
TICUT TOWN 

A strip of land containing over forty S(iuare miles, tapering from two miles 
wide at its northern boundai'v, widening to scarce four miles midway of its 
length, then narrowing and again widening at its foot to almost six miles ; a 
strip stretching nearly fifteen long miles from Hammonasset Point to its north- 
western cornel' — that, physically, is the town of Madison. It is a characteristic 
bit of New England, topographically. No mountains star its surface ; its 
highest point is Cranberry Hill, 400 feet, a little we.st of the center of North 
Madison, though High Hill, more conspicuous because unwooded, is only four 
feet short of that. Chestnut Hill and Walnut Hill, also halfway up its length, 
rise each above 300 feet. All the way from Durham to the sea the Hammonasset 
River's tortuous course is its eastern boundary, the limit of New Haven County 
in that direction. From the Hammonasset at the north branch off westward 
Foster's Brook and Oil Mill Brook, and in the southwestern corner East River 
and Neck River are interesting, though le.ss useful streams of water. 

These streams, at least those on the east side, have considerable water power 
possibilities, and for grist mills and saw mills have been much used in their 
time. Madison has had the familiar small indu.stries history of other Connecticut 
towns, though in lesser degree. Now' these have almost entirely disappeared, 
and Madison remains, as it has mainly been from the beginning, an agricultural 
town. Its soil is light, where it is not heavy with rocks, except along the river 
bottoms. There are many favorable farming areas. But the far northern part, 
in fact for a fourth of the way down from its northeni point, is still wooded, 
though several growths of the wood have been cleared off, and its ledges and 
hills offer little inducement to the farmer. 

The farmer does not need the room especially. In these forty miles dwell 
only 1,5.34 people. There were 1,809 when the town was set off from Guilford 
in 1826. The greate.st number any ceasus has found was 1,86.5 in 1860. Prob- 
ably a thousand of them live within two miles of the long shore. The village 
of Eagt River, which has a railroad station and post office, Madison Center and 
Hammonasset are along the coast, the former almost eityfied, with its trolley 

397 



398 A MODERN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN 

and electric lights aud city water, to whose shore come in the summer time a 
thousand or two of the summer pleasure seekers of this aud many states. Woods 
District, "the Woods," as it used to be, is tw-o and a half miles up from the 
shore. Over four miles above that is the center of North Madisou, with its 
church and sehoolhouse and scattering farms. Aud then the traveler, as ever 
since the day the white man came, plunges northward into wilderness. Above 
North Madison are five miles of weary distances, where the houses are few and 
the woods, except where the charcoal burner has stripped them, thick, where 
dark deeds have been done, a region which the average resident of civilized 
Madison, in the former days if not now, regarded as wilderness morally as well 
as physically. 

Such a town of contrasts is Madison, component part of the Guilford of the 
1639 foundation, inhabited by descendants of the Bishops and the Chittendens 
and the Nortons and the others who signed the Whitfield covenant. Its founda- 
tions are the fouiidations of Guilford, its spirit and pride aud ancestry the 
same. Yet Madison has from the first had its own individuality. Why should 
it not, since its settlemeut, at points, goes back within two years of the "Old 
Stone House?" Most of its territory was acquired from a second purchase of 
the Whitfield party, jointly from the sachem "pious Weekwash" and the famous 
Uneas of the Mohegans. As to this East Guilford part, running from the East 
or Kuttawoo River to the "Athammonassuck" — by simplified spelling Ham- 
monasset — we have the iuteresting information that this 26,000 acres cost "four 
coates, two kettles, four fathom of wampum, four Iiatehetts aud three hoes." 

It was an Indian paradise. All over it have been the marks of the aborigine, 
and two score years ago the plowboy who kept his eyes open for Indian arrows 
would not go unrewarded. They were good Indians for the most part, though 
they did not die young. Old people of fifty years ago remembered some of them, 
or thought they did. There was tradition if not remembrance of Hannah Punk 
aud Tunis, of "Old Anu" aud "Young Ann," of Walkee at North Bristol, of 
Jim Soebuck. Sue Nonesuch and Milly Coheague, all of whom were kept in good 
humor with the whites by fair treatuient, a little dickering — and now and then 
a drink of cider. 

The first settlement, probably, was an overflowing from the west side of East 
River. There were not so many of the settlers, but they were adventurous. 
So some of them worked west acro.ss Clapboard Hill, and found the East River. 
Then they waded across to see what was on the other side, and remained. So 
what is the village of East River was formed. Perhaps the nature of its forma- 
tion accounts for the fact that it w-as always nearer to Guilford, in spirit, than 
to Madison. But there was a jump clear across the town, soon after the pur- 
chase bounded by the Hammouasset, to the very mouth of that river. We find 
John Meigs there as early as 1654 — and many Meigses have been there ever since. 
John Bayley settled somewhat to the northwest of there, and from him Bayley's 
Creek and many Baj'Ieys, or Baileys, were named. Still further north, in the 




BOSTOX STREET, LOOKING EAST. JIADISOX 




BOSTON POST KOAIi, l.dOKIMi W IvST, MAIUSON 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 399 

region of the ' " Horsepond, " Christopher Foster, who came direct from Long 
Island, settled in 1740. One of the early points of settlement was the region 
since known as "Scotland," its name accoiinted for, perhaps, by the fact that 
one of the settlers was a Murray, and Hills and Bishops and Coes and Dowds 
soon after abounded there and around "Short Rocks." These spots are only 
a little south of the "Ducklioles" where the old mill stood by the Hammonasset. 

From these beginnings the progress was rapid. Though tlie number of 
planters did not greatly increase by immigration for a while after the first 
settlement, that was the day when the solitary had large families — ten children 
was no unheard of numbei- — and the plantation's second generation was a 
marked advance. Of course what is now the center of the town was early found, 
though the oldest house now standing there does not date earlier than 1700. 
But East Guilford .was not strong enough to think of standing by itself until 
1783. Then it applied for establishment as a separate parish. There seems to 
have been little opposition from the mother town. There was favorable action 
in town meeting, but for reasons not revealed to us at this present, the thing 
went no further at that time. The East Guilford which would have been created 
a separate town under that plan, included only the south society. That would 
have made the new town a small one, and left North Bristol in outer darkness, 
a notch on the territory of Guilford. This would have pleased the south 
society people well enough, no doubt, for there never was the most fraternal 
feeling between the two parts of the town. "AU creation and part of North 
Bristol" used to be a favorite smart saying in the town, who.se implication 
is plain enough. So if it could have been arranged to make an East Guilford 
minus North Bristol — and perhaps, for that matter, minus East River — a good 
many of the people would have been content. 

North Bristol (it was so named from Bezaleel Bristol, an early and respected 
settler) was settled about 1725, when it was indeed wilderness. Some of the 
first names found there were Turner, Dudley. Bishop, Munger, Johnson, Dowd 
and Hopson. The Hills and the Nortons came later, and must have prevailed, 
judging from their abundance there now. There is a marked break between the 
two settlements now ; it must have been extreme then. They grew up, but they 
did not grow together. The worst friction came over the matter of town meet- 
ings. The North Bri.stolites thought it hard to travel six miles to meet with the 
south society, and the south society people thought it even harder to climb up to 
the hills of North Bristol, good as the view was when they got there. At first they 
alternated with their town meetings. Then the south enders, as of course their 
majority enabled them, voted to give the north a third of the meetings. This 
being unsatisfactory, they created two voting districts in 1871, with the pro- 
vision that all the town meetings be in Soi;th Madison. But this was^ discon- 
tinued in 1879, and since then all the political functions of the town have been 
at the south end — in the basement of the Congi-egational church, the only town 
hall Madison had until 1899, since then in the Memorial Hall. 

That delayed separation from Guilford took place in 1826, and the town 



400 A MODERN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN 

became Madison from James Madison, fourth president of the United States. 
That, of course, was the conversion of "North Bristol" to North Madison. 

For the first fifty years or so of that scattered settlement in East River, 
Hammonasset, Scotland and around the green, the church problem must have 
been a vexed one. Guilford, which had encouraged the Hammonasset settle- 
ment, also encouraged the people there to affiliate themselves with Pastor and 
President Piersou's church in Killingworth across the river. A bridge had been 
built across East River as early as 1649, and the people there were taken care 
of in the mother town. Some of them show a tendency to keep up the affiliation 
to this day. But toward the close of the century there was a goodly company 
of people in the vicinity of the green, and some of them showed uneasiness to 
get their own church. They began earnestly to agitate for one in 1694 or 
sooner. They got it in 1707. They had, as a guarantee of good faith and 
works, erected a building two years earlier. Thus began the Congregational 
church of Madison, now as in the beginning the church of Madison. 

In the first 186 years of that church 's history it had six pastors, all of them 
men of distinction out of proportion to the church's apparent size. Rev. John 
Hart, the first, who served for twenty-four years until 1731, was a strong 
preacher and leader. Rev. Jonathan Todd followed him with the remarkable 
pastorate of fifty-eight years from 1733 to 1791. The next pastor was Rev. 
John Elliott, son of the Rev. Joseph Eliot, who was pastor of the first church 
of Guilford following 1664, a descendant of the apostle to the Indians. He 
began his pastorate in 1791 and closed it in 1824. For twenty-eight years after 
that Rev. Samuel N. Shepard was the pastor, a man who threw himself into 
town as well as church leadership in a positive and welcome way, a man of 
decided power. In 1857 the church called Rev. Samuel Fisk, who brought it 
more delight and fame, perhaps, than any of its previous pastors. Like many 
of the preachers of our time, he responded to the Civil war's great need for 
spiritual leaders in the army. He went out as a regimental chaplain and was 
killed while with his regiment in the battle of the Wilderness. He was widely 
known as a newspaper and war correspondent under the name of "Dunne 
Browne," and wrote with that fine vein of humor which made him so beloved 
in his church. Rev. James A. Gallup, in his time reckoned the ablest preacher 
on the shore between New Haven and New London, was pastor for the twenty- 
eight years between 1865 and 1893. He grew into his community, and it 
honored and followed liiiu. He was a man of fine scholarship, of true humanity, 
the mark of whose greatness of spirit still rests upon the town in which he 
took such pride and delight. 

The church's period since then has been of somewhat different character, 
not marked by long pastorates. In the last quarter century there have been 
four of them. Rev. William T. Brown followed Mr. Gallup. He was zealous 
for what was then beginning to be known as the higher, criticism, and he gave 
the conservative old church a shock. Some of its members brought about his 
trial for heresy in 1896, but they were, in a way, laughed out of court. The 




a>N(;RI':UATl(lN'AL tlUKCH. MAItl 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 401 

effect was not salutai\y, however, and Mr. Brown, a man of the best intentions, 
left a divided church in 1898. He was followed by Rev. George A. Bushee, who 
for nine years gave the church wise leadership, leaving to take up teaching in 
1907. Rev. Arthur H. Hope was pastor for the following six years, until called 
to Springfield in 1914. Since then the Rev. A. T. Steele has been pastor, 
leading the church somewhat after the manner of its former regime. 

The church's first building was on the green, without steeple or bell, and 
having no galleries until 1715. The people rebuilt in 1753, doing better as to 
architecture. This church had two stories, with two tiers of windows. It had 
also the quaint high pulpit. It was adorned' with a steeple, and was one of the 
interesting buildings of that period. "When the people built for the third time 
in 1838, they had the common struggle to break away from the green. There 
was a strong party that favored building on Deacon Hart's lot north of the 
green, but so resolute was the minority that forty-seven members actually with- 
drew from the church in 1841, because of the change. The commanding site 
north of the green was chosen, and it and the building placed thereon have ever 
since been the pride of the people of Madison, the delight of all who visit the 
town. It is a building of notable architecture, acknowledged by all good .judges 
to be one of the finest country churches of its type in New England. A hand- 
some modern chapel was added to its eciuipment, on a plot just east of the 
green, in 1881. 

North Madison, whose beginnings w^ere in 1725, did not have its own church 
until after a society was incorporated in 1753. It had erected a sort of church 
building, small and very primitive, in 1737, and Rev. John Rundle commenced 
to preach to the people. Since his day there have been many pastorates, most 
of them short ones, one of the more notable of recent times being that of Rev. 
"William E. B. Moore from 1885 to 1895. The present fine cTiurch building 
was erected in 1887, in the pastorate of Rev. Stephen Hayes. It is in design 
and size a credit to the community. The present pastor of the church is Rev. 
Theodore Bacheler. 

Madison has had two Methodist churches, but since its size in population, as 
we have seen, tends to diminish rather than increase; the newer denomination 
has a struggle for existence. The church in South Madison was founded 
in 1839. and has been served by many alile men, the first being Rev. James H. 
Pern' in 1840. Rev. "William P. Markwick was one of the most popular of its 
pastors, and for several years before his death Rev. Otis J. Range ministei-ed to 
this church .jointly with the one in Guilford. The church owes much to some 
of the devoted men in its denomination, notably the 'IMiners, Charles il. and 
William C. Members of the Congregational church also have been liberal 
in their attendance and support. The other chui-eh was in Rockland, in the 
far regions above North Madison, and was started as early as 1800. It has 
had many pastors, but gained a somewhat unenviable notoriety in 1877 on ac- 
count of the Maiy Stannard murder scandal, which wrecked the reputation of 



402 A MODERN HISTORY OP NEW HAVEN 

Rev. H. H. Hayden, then its pastor, not to speak of that of some of the 
lawyers of New Haven County. In recent years the church has been closed. 

Madison is distinctly an agricultural community. Hardly a trace is found in 
these days of any other industry. Yet there have been the early outcroppings 
of the Yankee disposition to make things which we have seen in other towns, 
and some important features of that activity, even in recent years. There were 
grist mills on many of its sturdy streams, notably that at Duckholes. Henry 
Hull had another at Nortontown. There were several sawmills in the upper 
portions of the town. In the eastern part of "the Woods," William F. Whedon 
and his son Webster D. Whedon had for some years previous to 1900 a mill 
for the turning of small handles and other wooden specialties. Earlier than 
that, there were iron works in a small way, and in the days when the catching 
of whitefish, or menhaden was at its height, such of the fish as were not sold to 
the farmei-s for fertilizer were tried up for oil. The building up of the shore 
with valuable summer cottages convinced Madison that the seashore was more 
important than the oil industiy. Another manufacturing effort, highly inter- 
esting while it lasted, was the attempt in the 'seventies of Dennis Tuttle, 
who acquired a portion of a deep swamp in the southern part of the town near 
the railroad station, to manufacture peat there on a large scale. But that was 
in the days of cheap fuel and high cost of transportation. The venture failed. 
iladison had two wharves, the East and felie West, built and maintained at 
some expense, as the town has no sufficient breakwater or natural harbor. They 
were sturdily kept up as long as the town's coasting trade continued, and that 
was an important one at one time. This was also responsible for a substantial 
shipbuilding industry, the most important feature of which was the yard at the 
East Wharf conducted for years by Charles M. ]\Iiner and his son William C. 
Miner. In 1889 a partly built vessel was destroyed by fire on the ways, and 
this practically terminated the industry, which before that had produced some 
of the important vessels for the coasting trade in Connecticut and nearby states. 
There was a time when the IMadison shore and the creeks which met it 
seemed a natural ground for oyster growing. Neck River's mouth was deemed 
a favorable spot, except for the fresh water which poured down into it. So in 
1828 the Madison Channel Company was formed, which dug a canal from a 
point in the river a mile and a half up from its mouth straight to the Sound. 
The fresh water coming down was to be diverted into this, while the mouth of 
the river, flooded with salt water, was to be an oyster breeding ground. The 
canal worked well enough, but the oysters refused to grow profitably. The 
oyster experiment lapsed, and the canal remained, an expensive and useless 
ditch. 

iladison's shore today is its fame and its fortune. It has more good beach in 
proportion to its coast than any other New Haven County town. Outsiders 
seem earliest to have appreciated its virtues. A certain Mrs. Dexter of Michi- 
gan, it is said, was the fii-st to build a shore cottage in Madison. Back in the 
'sixties she brought a ready-made frame from Michigan, the story is. and put it 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 403 

up near the shore midway between East and West wharf. She was alone in 
her delight until almost 1880, when "New Waterbury," a street cut through 
from Liberty Street to the shore, was built up in a season or two. Soon after 
that the rush commenced, and ten or fifteen years ago it was hard to find 
a good site remaining. The fine residences which now line Madison's shore 
all the way from east of Webster Point to what they used to call "the jumpiiig- 
off place" — Hogshead Point — now form a substantial part of Madison's 
$2,508,657 grand list, and their peojile and those who visit the shore hotels 
in their four months' stay each summer bring a great share of Madison's present 
prosperity. 

There were formerly two paper mills on the upper Hammonasset River 
which meant a great deal to the people of Madison, not only in employment but 
because one of them, a straw board mill, made a market for most of the 
farmers' rye straw. They were, strictly, on the Killingworth side of the river, 
but in effect they were Madison industries. The "Upper mill" was supposed 
to make the finer grades of paper, and both were conducted for some years by 
Ezra Cooper & Son. These, it is said, were tannery sites earlier. The lower 
paper mill was demolished some years ago, and about 1902 the property was 
purchased by the Guilford-Chester Water Company, which supplies several 
towns in the region with water. It was the company's intention, it is supposed, 
to build a new high dam and make an immense reservoir there, for the purpose 
not onl.y of furnishing water but of proditcing electricity for light and power. 
But for some reason the plan has not been carried out, and the great water 
privilege lies practically idle. Further up is the picturesque spot known as 
Nineveh Falls, the remains of a dam where there w^as formerly an old grist mill. 

In recent times iladison has had .some modern industries, most important 
of them, probably, the school furniture and supplies factory of Munger & Son, 
at East River. This at one time employed upwards of twenty people, and 
was continued by George B. Munger for some time after his father's death. A 
few years ago lie retired from active work, devoting himself principally to 
public efforts for the town which he has always honored, and to his duties as 
trustee of the Guilford Savings Bank. 

Several years ago Henry J. Griswold, who now lives in New Haven, ran a 
small hosiery factory at the rear of his house near the corner of Boston and 
Wall streets, and farther up Wall Street Wilson B. Coe still conducts the busi- 
ness of distributing Valentine, Fourth of July and Christmas novelties, employ- 
ing several people at home and a salesman or two on the road. William B. 
Crampton for years had a small shop for the manufacture of spectacle cases. 

Madison has no bank, but in its place it has the Madison Mutual Fire Insur- 
ance Company, established in 1855. As fires are rare in Madison, which has 
now a good volunteer fire company, this association has had little going out and 
a steady revenue for many years, so that it now has a sun:>lus of $5,419. Its 
president is Wilbur W. Pardee. 

Its green is a great feature of Madison, no town outside of New Haven 



404 A MODERN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN 

having one more attractive or better maintained. It is far different from the 
time in the 'thirties when the "school pond" covered a large area of the green 
and the street in front of the church, and Rev. Samuel N. Shepard had to 
work for years to get the thing filled up. The noble trees which surround the 
green, which line the main street from Neck sehoolhouse to the center, especially 
the arches which shade Wall Street and Boston Street, are the glory of the town. 
Boston Street especially, with its triple row of glorious elms, is one of the most 
beautiful streets in New England. 

For years Madison's educational reputation centered around old Lee's 
Academy, which truly was a famous school in the days of the private academy. 
It began its existence "down at the Neck," and peregrinated as buildings some- 
times do until it arrived at its present location north of the Hand high school, 
having rested for many year.s at a point near the east side of the green. It was 
a private school for the first half century or more of its existence. When 
Madison acquired a high school, it was given over entirely to the Center school 
district, which for several decades before that had used its lower floor. On 
the building's final move, it was made into a two-room school again. In 1881 
Daniel Hand, a wealthy resident of Guilford with Madison affiliations, gave the 
town what was at the first called Hand Academy, later the Hand high school. 
It now serves as a high and grammar school, and two more grades are accom- 
modated in the old Lee's Academy building. The town, whose schools are all 
under a central management, has besides these six one-room school buildings. 
The school committee for 1917 consisted of Edward A. Chittenden, Webster D. 
Whedon, Emerson G. Holbrook, Walter E. Clark, George C. Field and William 
S. Hull. 

The attention of the state at large has been drawn especially to Madison in 
recent years through the establishment there of an important state game farm. 
In Sepember, 1913, the state leased what had been the Charles W. Hill farm in 
"Copps district," and established there a preserve for the propagation of quail, 
pheasants of various varieties, and later, of mallard ducks. The old homestead 
has been modified as a sort of official head(|uarters and reception rooms for the 
state Pish and Game Commission, and a new house built south of it for the game- 
keeper. The state has now purchased 127 acres of this farm and the land 
adjoining it, and leases in addition 653 acres in the vicinit.y — 780 "acres in all. 
There it has what good judges say is one of the best equipped and most thor- 
oughly conducted game farms in the United States. 

Madison is blessed with two public libraries, lioth of them good one.s. East 
River asserted its library independence in 1876, put up a building and estab- 
lished a library which now has upward of 2,600 volumes, and is conducted by 
Mrs. L. S. Werner, librarian. IMadison, which had a subscription library for 
some years previous to that, was in 1900 presented with a handsome library 
building by Miss Mary Eliza Seranton of New Haven, as a memorial to her 
father, the late Erastus C. Seranton, a native of Madison, who was at one time 




E. C. SORANTON MEMORIAL LIBRARY. jAIADISUN 




MEMORL\L HALL, iL\I)I80N 



4 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 405 

president of the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad Company. It 
now has 9,000 volumes, and ]\Iiss Evelyn Meriwether is librarian. 

The town did not settle the matter of a soldiers' monument until 1898, and 
then it wisely decided on a town hall as a memorial. It was erected on the east 
side of the green, partly on the site formerly occupied by Philander P. Coe's 
store and hall, and is a handsome and well appointed building, bearing suitable 
memorial tablets to Madison's heroes of the wars. For Madison, like Guilford, 
had a wonderful record in war service, and justly recognized the sacrificing 
patriotism of its men of former days. That such patriotism is not all of the past, 
however, Madison is well demonsti-ating in the present supreme struggle of our 
nation. 

Vincent M. Wilcox, a former resident of Madison, at one time head of the 
New York photographic firm of E. & H. T. Anthony, himself a veteran of the 
Civil war, liad the conviction that the soldiers' memorial should be something 
other than a building, and had at his own expense erected in 1895 a liaudsome 
memorial shaft in the West cemetery. 

Such are the "high spots" of the town that is today. It is the same old 
town in foundation and substance. It is a changed town in some features of 
its population. The Scrantons and the Dowds, the Lees and the Bishops and 
Bnshnells, still hold their own in a measure. The Wileoxes and the W^hedons 
and the Nashes still are foiind there. But some localities are materially changed 
in population, notably such a section as "the Woods," where almost every one 
of the farms has passed out of the hands of the native owners and so many 
new citizens have come in that at one time a Lutheran church was set up thei'e. 
The old town physicians, Doctor Webb and Doctor Meigs, have some time since 
gone, but such men as Doctor Rindge and Doctor Ayer fill tlieir places. The 
]\reigses and the !!\Iungers, the Chittendens and the Whedons, still have a hand 
in politics, but with them are newcomers like Holbrook and Steggemann and 
Lippincott and Marsden, the last a more than local figure in law and state 
politics. It is a changed company, but the traditions are safe in its keeping. 



CHAPTER XLV 
WOODBRIDGE 

THE STORY OF THE ANCIENT ''PARISH OF AMITY," AND OF THE ELEMENTS WHICH 
MAKE THE FINE OLD TOWN ON THE HILLS OVERLOOKING NEW HAVEN 



Woodbridge is a strange town, as Connecticut towns go. It touciics tlie 
greatest city of Connecticut, and from half a dozen of its heights the beholder 
may see tlie city spread out with all its busy, crowded life, can hear its whistles 
and almost catch its hum. Yet it is one of the most unspoiled of the rural 
towns of the state. No railroad touches it. No street railway has ever invaded 
its borders. It has no main street, though three lines of trunk highway radiate 
from New Haven through it. It has no postoffice, though the rural mail carrier 
roaches it daily, though a great trunk telegraph line cuts across its country, and 
the telephone reaches all its parts with its network of wii-es. It has no "cen- 
ter," as most towns know their most thickly populated part. 

Yet no one can call Woodbridge isolated. "Isolated" is far from a proper 
description of a town from any one of whose numerous heights a glimpse of 
the busy world, of a great modern center of education, of manufacturing and 
commerce, lies spread to the beholder; from which one in a half-hour's walk 
can find himself in the mo.st modern of surroundings; which is constantly crossed 
by life's swiftest tides; which is the home for all or part of the year of hun- 
dreds of those who carry on the life of the city. Woodbridge is suburban, but 
decidedly not in the stereotyped sense. Indeed, it is a community like no other, 
delightfully peculiar to itself. 

It is a small town, by the standard commonly applied. The last census num- 
bered only 878 people there. But comparatively it was not always so. In 1790, 
six yeai's after its incorporation, there were 2,124 people in Woodbridge. That 
was about half as many as New Haven had at the time. It substantially held 
its ground for four decades, and as late as 1830 had 2,052 people. It should, 
however, be explained that up to this counting the limits of Woodbridge included 
what is now Bethany. In 1632 Bethany was set oi? by itself, and the following 
census of 1840 found only 958 persons left in Woodbridge. 

The greater part of Woodbridge was included in the firet purchase from 
the Indians. There was an added part, however, from "North Milford," most 

406 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 407 

of which was included in the town of Orange. The man who made Woodbridge, 
and gave it its name, was the Rev. Benjamin Woodbridge, who occupied in his 
day that peculiar community ofiSce which has descended to the pastor of Wood- 
bridge's one church in all the generations since. He was the founder of the 
"Parish of Amity," whose founding goes back almost to the beginning of the 
eighteenth century, and whose incorporation by the legislature in 1738 antedates 
the incorporation of the town by forty-six j'lars. "Amity" included the 
Bethany area, and seems to have had, in the early days, a goodly scattering of 
people. Being much detached fi'om the center of worship in New Haven, 
especially in winter, they were given permission to have their own ecclesiastical 
organization, and such worship as they could hold without a building. In the 
summer, however, they were still required to attend woi-ship in the Meeting 
House on the Green, live miles away, or, if they preferred, in the old church in 
Jlilford. This was previous to 1742. At that time they built a place of woi-- 
ship, near where the present one stands, fixing thereby the only central point 
which Woodbridge has had. It was located on what Woodbridge called its 
"green," an open space at the crossing of two roads. It long went by the name 
of the fifth society, which means, presumably, that it was the fifth daughter of 
the original church. 

There the Rev. Benjamin Woodbridge served the people of the double town 
of Woodbridge and Bethany, and ministered to many other than the religious 
needs. It is, as has been said, a peculiar and blessed service which each suc- 
ceeding pastor, from Parson Woodbridge down, has been able to perform for 
tliis people. He lias been one of the best examples of the "village preacher" 
Goldsmith portrayed now to be found in this country. Parson Woodbridge 's 
house, doubtless known, in his day, "to all the vagi-ant train," was one of the 
oldest in the town, built in 1697. He occupied it for a large part of his forty 
years as the foremost citizen, and there he died. The house remained until 1896, 
when it was destroyed by fire. 

Such are the foundations of that fine town and community which has in 
its century and a half of separate existence always kept close to the heart of 
its mother, New Haven, .yet preserved unspoiled the charm which nature gave 
it. It is, for the most part, a community of fine descendants of the fathers, and 
such later admixture as there has been has caught tlie spirit of the town's 
origin and surroundings, and contributed to its edification. Woodbridge of to- 
day is an interesting mingling of its sons who have remained, of its prodigals 
who have come repentant back, and of other discerning ones who have sought 
entrance to the fellowship. Most of the old houses have been cared for and 
preserved, or remodeled into modern residences. There is now an admixture 
of new houses, tastefxdly designed, some by New Haveners whose sense of 
natural beauty has been made captive by the charm of the place. Woodbridge, 
in a sense more meaningful than the common use, is a community of homes. 

Except in such a way, the years have brought few changes. The town's 
chi.ef features are of the unchanging type. Its natural beauty is striking. Off 



408 A MODERN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN 

to the southeast ever rise the West Roek cliffs, watchtower of the New Haven 
just beyond. Yet "Round Hill" and "Bradley Hill," two of Woodbridge's 
own heights, rise almost three hundred feet higher above sea level than does 
abrupter West Roek. Woodbridge hills, indeed, are most impressive when seen 
from West Roek. There are seven or eight of them in all, including, besides 
the two mentioned, "Long Hill," "Prospect Hill," "Carrington Hill" and 
"Peck Hill." There is a pleasing variety of meadow and stream and lake be- 
tween. Along the course of West River are some impressive lakes, created by 
manufacturing concerns which have built dams across the river at Westville, 
or bv the New Haven Water Company, which has in and near Woodbridge some 
of its chief sources of water supply. 

"Woodbridge hills" are historic in fame. They are the pride of their heirs, 
the delight of their visitore. There is iron in their air and inspiration in their 
view. From "Round Hill," the commanding eminence in the far northern part 
of the town, the climber may gain such a view as few spots in all tlie region 
can equal, which takes in Mount Carmel, ileriden's Hanging Hills, the heights 
of North Branford, all the beauty of Woodbridge, the lines of the city and the 
glimmering of the blue Sound beyond. 

Aside from its hills. Woodbridge has many picturesque and interesting spots. 
To such a paradise of nature naturally the Indians chiug long after they had 
disappeared in most other parts of the state. They were not the warlike 
Pequots, nor the subjects of Jlomauguiu. but an unimportant remnant of the 
Paugussett or Wepewaug tribe. They settled by themselves at a northern point 
in the town called "Deerfield Reservation," now not clearly located. They 
lived by crude farming and making ba.skets, and remnants of them were found 
in their district as late as the middle of the last century. 

Woodbridge had its share in the episode of the Regicides. The boulder on 
West Rock may have made a good hiding place, but parts of Woodbridge were 
more comfortable, and not much more accessible to the agents of the king who 
were hunting them. We are told that they were supplied with food by Richard 
Sperry, who lived on the West Rock side of the town. Four other Woodbridge 
points are mentioned where they found shelter at different times, now identified 
as the "Harbor," the "Spring," "Hatchet Harbor" and the "Lodge." 

From the noJ-theastern point of the town flows West River, never failing 
source of water for New Haven. It is beyond the northern boundary that the 
New Haven Water Company has made its latest and greatest dam, forming one 
of the largest reservoirs in its system by flooding a considerable section of the 
eastern part of Bethany. Two miles down on the river is its Lake Dawson. 
But there is another stream, Sargent's River, which flows from the northern 
boundary of Woodbridge at a point farther west. This enters West River at 
a point just above Lake Dawson, first passing through one of the most famously 
picturesque spots in Woodbridge, the "Glen." Here, on a sharp fall of the 
river, was a spot of great natural beauty, much admired and greatly visited. 
This has been engiilfed in one of the reservoirs, but " Sperry 's Falls," reminder 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 409 

of one of the earliest grist mills in New Haven County, still remain. With these 
and the old mill ruins in a setting of nature, the place is a delightful retreat. 
The farm originally containing it was the birthplace of Hon. Nehemiah D. 
Sperry, distinguished resident of New Haven, and in 1907 the heirs of Enoch 
and Atlanta Sperry gave the land to Woodbridge for a pulilic park. Such an 
institution .seems hardly needed by so rural a community, but it is com- 
forting to all wlio love the town to know that its most delightful spot is pre- 
served in such a manner that its enjoyment cannot be spoiled. 

The old church of 1742, grown old and inadequate, was replaced in 1833 
by an edifice of architecture ai)propriate to "Amity's" traditions, and this 
still stands in a good state of preservation on the "green." A "lecture 
room," the old New England name for "pari.sh house," was built adjoining 
it in 1880, the gift of Mrs. Zina Carrington, of one of the old Woodbridge 
families. Mrs. Mary Clark Treat, another of the old inhabitants, gave the 
church an organ in 1891. The church has been served by many faithful men 
since his day, one of whom, at least, approached in length of service the record 
of Parson Woodbridge. He was Rev. S. P. ilarvin, who was with the people 
from 1865 to 1903, and was the leader of the town. He was sueceed.ed by Rev. 
Frederick Torrel Persons, who in his pastorate of seven years endeared him- 
self proportionately as much as any m_inister in the church's history. He 
resigned in 1911 to take charge of the church at Mount Carmel. 

II 

The streams of Woodbridge early attracted the seekers of mechanical 
power, and we find in the town early in the last century a group of flourishing 
small industries which may easily account for the comparatively large popula- 
tion of 1800. Besides the grist mill at Sperry 's Falls, there were carding mills 
and a clothier's shop at the same point, possibly after the grist mill was dis- 
continued. Near the point where the head of Lake Dawson now is there was a 
factory conducted by Levi Peek, where iron candlesticks were made. In the 
same plant, somewhat later, organs and melodeons were made. And below where 
the lake ends at the south, Elioenai Clark had a shop where he made coffins and 
cabinet work. All over the town, naturally, there were sawmills, and there were 
at one time and another, when the raising of grain was commoner than now, 
several grist mills. One of these was the mill west of "Buttonball Corner," 
where James Baldwin made excellent and possibly "wheatless" flour some 
years ago, one justly celebrated brand bearing the trademark of "Aunt 
Hannah's Flour." 

One of the most interesting of the industries, whose marks remain today 
and are a mystery to many of the uninitiated, was off the Bethany road opposite 
Lake Dawson. There are two impressive piles of ruined masonry which might 
be tombs of the Pharaohs or remains of Roman temples, but are only the 
remains of kilns in which cement was once burned from some of the native 



410 A MODERN HISTORY OP NEW HAVEN 

quarry product. The quality of the cement turned out, they tell us, was not 
such as to make the industry of long duration. West of the church, near the 
home of Henry C. Baldwin, was a clock factory operated by John Northrop. 
There was also a small factory in the ravine, and bolts were made at the saw- 
mill place, also west of the church. 

Just as we have seen that the firearms industry, for which New Haven 
gets all the credit, I'eally was started in Hamden, so we find that the match 
industry always popularly identified with Westville had its start in Wood- 
bridge. It is claimed that this town w-as the birthplace of the friction match, 
and the claim has excellent support. Thomas Sanford was the inventor, and 
there is a court record to prove that he fought for and won his right to the title. 
He was living in Oxford, neighbor town to Woodbridge, when he developed his 
invention, but his fii-st factory was in Woodbridge, in a part of the house 
now occupied by Robert Payne. When he outgrew that shop, he moved to a 
larger place at the foot of Round Hill on the western side. The ruins of that 
factory are still pointed out by Woodbridge people. Mr. Sanford later built an- 
other shop on Bladen's Brook, farther down. There was a second Woodbridge 
maker of matches, better known, Williana A. Clark, who had a shop still farther 
down the same brook. He was an inventor and improver of match making 
machinery, and built up a considerable business. The paper co/itainers for the 
matches were in tho.se days made by hand, and the demand for them created 
an industry in that part of Woodbridge which was carried on in the homes 
mostly by women and children. The work spread, however, to some of the 
surromiding towns, ilr. Clark oj^erated his factory as late as 188.5, when the 
Diamond Match Company in nearby Westville overshadowed it, and presently 
absorbed it. 

In times since the manufacturing days the character of Woodbridge has 
mildly changed In the beginning it was mainly an agricultural town, and 
today it is that more truly than ever. There are large dairy farms and fruit 
farms, such as those of Jacoli Beisiegel and Rollin C. Newton. There are 
.scores of well tilled, prosperous general farms. On the New Haven edge the 
town has had its recent additions of small farmers, mostly importations from 
the Old World, who run market gardens and truck their products to the city. 

Woodbridge has a quality, already mentioned, whicli it owes mostly to the 
city. It has become the home of the discriminating. Not a few of those from 
its old families have found their work in New Haven. Some of them have kept 
the old properties, some have received them by inheritance, some have bought 
them back. In a few cases the residence has been continuous. But the appre- 
ciation of the old town has grown with years, and is displayed in the develop- 
ment of these old houses and grounds. Here one will be preserved as nearly 
as possible according to the colonial traditions. Another will be beautified 
somewhat according to modern standards, though not in such a way as to clash 
with its surroundings. But there are a few modern residences of the new type, 
mostly tasteful and artistically fitted to their surroundings, built by men of 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 411 

wealth and appreciation of the wonderful beauties of the town. There is room 
for many more houses of this sort, for the hills of Woodbridge abound in sites 
which should delight the heart of seekers of ideal country home locations. 

Some of the houses which date back a century and a half or more, excellently 
preserved within and without, are notable. Conspicuous among them because 
of itself and because of its unbroken line of ownership, is the house belonging to 
Mrs. Samuel H. Street of New Haven. It was built in 1760 by her great- 
grandfather, Samuel Newton, for his son, Lieut. Samuel Newton, who was in 
the Revolutionary war. It has remained in the Newton family ever since. Of 
the best type of colonial house, it has been kept unspoiled. Within are massive 
fireplaces, oaken door.s and many marks of the period of its origin. Without, it 
shows the plain and massive architecture of its times. With it are retained a 
sufficient number of the broad acres which composed the original farm so that 
ilr. and Mrs. Street can live comfortably there except for a few months when 
the dead of winter makes them seek the city. It is situated on the road which 
runs north past the church. 

An even older house, of a different colonial type, is the residence of G. H. 
Bishop, built between 1750 and 1760 by Thomas Darling, and occupied ever 
since by his direct descendants. It is on the "Litchfield turnpike," and stands, 
with its gable roof and dormer windows, an impressive proof of how a solidly 
built house of the middle eighteenth century can remain a comfortable farm- 
house in the twentieth. 

An instance of the rescue of an old house, and its restoration to its old 
time beauty and dignity, is the Hemingway homestead, on the same road from 
the church, north of the residence of ilr. and ilrs. Street. This was built about 
1763, its builder being somewhat obscure. But in 1780 it was the property of 
Deacon Isaac Hemingway. He and his son Abraham lived there until about 
1866. It was in the hands of various owners after that until in 1909 it was pur- 
chased by Prof. John W. Wetzel of Yale, now of Hartford, who has beautified 
it without and within, and rejoices in it with the true joy of a lover of the 
historic and the artistic. Standing somewhat back from the street, shaded 
by some noble old trees, it is a place to delight the body and rest the soul. 

James L. Nesbit of New Haven is the present owner of what is perhaps 
one of the oldest houses in Woodbridge, though materially altered from its 
original form. It is the Captain John Beecher place, probably built in 1745 or 
1750, and sold to Roger Sherman in 1766. By him it was passed on to James 
Abraham Hillhouse in 1773, descending to James Hillhouse of New Haven, who 
sold it to Timothy Fowler in 1825. 'Sir. Nesbit purchased it in 1903. 

The Sperry homestead also lays claim to respectable age, having been built 
before 1750 by Ebenezer Sperry, a descendant of Richard Sperry. It is now a 
comfortable farmhouse, owned by Mrs. Charles A. Bond, a descendant of the 
Sperry family. 

On "Peck Hill" is a fine old farmhouse probably built by Nathan Clark 
about 1761, and ever since in the possession of some member of the Clark 



412 A MODERN HISTORY OP NEW HAVEN 

family. It is now owned by Mrs. Mary Clark Treat Nettleton, vvliose husband 
is Prof. George H. Nettleton of Yale I'niversity. 

A more modern type of farmhouse, the home of one of the most sterling 
families and on one of the most prosperous farms of Woodbridge, is that of 
Rollin C. Newton, built in 1834 by the present owner's father, J. Sidney New- 
ton. It is situated under th<? brow of Round Hill, on the turnpike to Seymour. 
There are other Newton places in several parts of the town. One of the most 
notable of them, now the summer home of Dr. Thomas Russell, was built between 
1660 and 1683 for Roger Newton, a descendant of the Rev. Roger Newton of 
Milford. It is a colonial house of the most dignified type. 

A place of muph liistoric interest, now somewhat remodeled, is what was 
the old Elioenai Clark lavcrn, on the Litchfield turnpike. Mr. Clark built it 
about 1785, and now his great-grandson, Noyes D. Clark, owns it. 

Now and then one of these old bouses has been completely modernized, in 
appearance and in niimc. An instance of this is what is now called "Rose 
Ridge," which was built in 1795 by Lazarus Clark. It has been in the Clark 
family ever since; being now owned by Mrs. Franklin Farrel and Mrs. Charles 
Brooker of Aiisonia. but it did not always have the conspicuously modern piazza 
whicli runs on two sides of it. 

Contrasting sti-ongly to all these, but only adding by variety to the charm 
of modern Woodbridge, is such an estate as "'Beinhurst," the residence of W. A. 
Bein, representing the acme of landscape gardening, smothered in shrubbery aud 
picturesque with winding paths and terraces. The severe opposite as to sur- 
roundings is the modern house of Judge Henry Stoddard of New Haven, 
colonial in its type, with shingled sides, standing on a commanding hill, but un- 
sheltered by trees or shrubbery. Still another contrasting type is "Tother 
House" of Frank G. P. Barnes of New Haven, with its cobblestone piazza and 
pillars and its rip-rap chimneys, striking but artistic. Mrs. Morris F. Tyler 
maintains one of the most attractive places in the town, less extremely modern, 
but with finely arranged and well kept grounds. Jacob P. Goodhart, the well 
known New Haven lawyer, has another attractive modern house with well 
appointed grounds. 

There is a most praiseworthy community spirit in Woodbridge. Tlie sons 
of the men who made the town still control its affairs. Its business management 
is safely in the hands of such men as William H. Warner, Rollin C. Newton, 
Jacob Beisiegel, Newton J. Peck, H. H. Tomlinson, G. Halsted Bishop, Virgil P. 
Sperry and Stanley L. Dickinson. They, and a score of others who might justly 
he mentioned, form a body of sterling, substantial, progressive citizens, who 
know the worth of their town, and intelligently preserve its traditions. 

Some years ago the earlier and the later residents united to form the Wood- 
bridge Civic Association, whose purpose partly is to keep Woodbridge on the 
map, so to speak. This has been done by the legitimate and becoming means of 
keeping the permanent and summer residents in happy harmony, so that the 
united voice of their joy might be heard afar, and attract others to join. Fur- 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 413 

ther than that, the association was to woi'k for civic improvement, for better 
I'oads, to promote an interest in colonial architecture and other worthy types of 
building, to secure better telephone service and, if possible, a modern lighting 
system. And lastly, to agitate as far as might be for a trolley system or some 
other means of transportation between town and city. 

The trolley system has not yet come, and seems unlikely to hasten. The 
universal motor ear seems verj- well taking its place. And Woodbridge, many 
think, will be as well off without some of the familiar results which follow in 
the wake of a street railway. It is steadily growing in good residents, though 
its population shows no boom. It has a social life which is peculiar to itself. 
Helped by the Civic Association, it has, especially in the summer time, many 
lectures and various entertainments. In the last century, endowed by James 
Perkins, it had Perkins Academy, which stood on the green east of the church 
from 1848 to 1861, but has now disappeared. A few years ago the town voted 
to erect a Union school and library building on a lot adjoining the green, and 
these institutions have now become a part of the town's progressive life. Other 
good schools supply the needs of the outlying districts, and New Haven sup- 
plies high school facilities. 

Always, as in the days since the "Parish of Amity" was founded, tliat life 
centers around the old church. Supported alike by permanent residents and 
summer dwellers, still the only church within the limits of the town, it serves a 
community purpose which makes Woodbridge, churchwise, almost a town unique. 
In many other waj^s it stands alone, not to say unapproachable, among the 
towns of Connecticut. To the Woodbridge hills the people of New Haven and 
of other towns lift xip their eyes, and seek them for the permanent benefit of 
the things that abide. 



CHAPTER XLVI 
NORTH BRANFORD 

NORTH FARMS, THE HISTORIC AND COLONIAL P.UIT OP BRANFORD, THE TOWN OF DEEP 
FOUNDATIONS, HONORABLE RECORD AND SUBSTANTIAL MODERN INDUSTRY 

A fair township of flue old farms, sspreadiug out over hill and valley, many 
of them tilled by the descendants of the pioneers, a noble stretch of unspoiled 
country, is North Brauford. Driving along its quiet roads, strolling over its 
peaceful hills, one may easily forget the driving, striving city only seven miles 
away. For on its heights are uplift, health and joy, and on its estates live men 
and women of the sort who make the world most worth while. 

In character the North Branford of the twentieth century is more like the 
"North Farms" of the colonial days than are most of our towns like their origin. 
Still, in the main, it is an agricultural community. Its people live by the city 
more than formerly, are more closely in touch with it. They have an admixture 
of strange neighbors which the new centuries have brought. But North Bran- 
ford retains the sterling stamp wliich the fathers placed on it, and by the dis- 
cerning is it truly loved for its old fashioned worth. To it the fisherman comes 
when he craves a Waltonian paradise. Hither the jaded city dweller hies him 
when he seeks the real country. Here is the truest, most refreshing contrast to 
that in the city which tires and unnerves. It is a community which in character 
aud quality exemplifies Connecticut at its simplest and best. 

By incorporation the youngest of the towns of this group. North Brauford 
may be the oldest of them all in some features of its origin. For there is trust- 
worthy evidence that, when the territory of Totoket was purchased from the 
Indians in 1638 by the Davenport settlers, there were at least two white men 
on the gTound. One of them was Thomas Mulliner, at Branford Point some- 
thing of a thorn in the flesh of the pilgrims to that region, whose widow and 
son, as we have seen, received lands in North Brauford in exchange for their 
holdings at the point, and thereafter became a part of the upper community. 
Then there was Tliomas Whitway, M'hose tract was near the Foxon region, the 
other settler of, so to speak, prehistoric standing. 

The early settlers from whom the present native population of North Bran- 
ford has come down were for the most part emigi-ants from original Branford at 
the south. They soon divided into two settlements, almost five miles apart. North 
Farms in the southern portion of what is now North Branford. and Northford in 

414 




Ol.l) CONGKEliATIONAL PARSONAGE BUILT BY RE\'. SAMUEL EELLS IN 17(i!l, 

NORTH BRAN FORD 





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(II. I) MEKTINfi IKirsE BUILT ]N 17:.'T. NORTH BRANFORD 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 415 

the upper part. Here two villages have grown up, each centering around a 
church of the original Pilgrim form. Of North Farms, Mrs. Bertha Russell 
(Charles F.) Holabird thus sums up the colonial history: 

"The lands owned by the original proprietors of the town of Branford were 
not only granted by the British crown, but to the lasting credit of our ancestors 
were bought from the Indians as w^ell, and at least one place-name stands in 
kindly remembrance of an old sachem. 'Sibbie' — I quote from George I. 
"Wood's early history of the Congi-egational church and society — 'was the name 
given to the hill originally connected with a spring called Sibbie 's spring on the 
homestead of Widow Augustus Ru.ssell. It was the name of a petty Indian 
sachem under Kishonk the sachem of Indian Neck, who was the chief over the 
Indians in this neighborhood. ' 

"Jonathan Rose, son of Robert Rose, built the first house, 1680, near Hop- 
yard plain. Jonathan Rose married Deliverance Charles. His son, Jonathan, 
Jr., married Abigail Foot August 15, 1697. They had a large familj' of six sons 
and two daughters. Jonathan Rose, .3rd, built the first house on the estate in 
North Farms, now owned by Judge John Carter Rose of Baltimore, Md. The 
colonial families of Linsley, Foot, Harrison, Page, Rogers, Barker, Butler, Bying- 
ton, Barnes and Palmer built veiy early here. The oldest house now standing is 
the Linsley house on Bare Plain, built in 1707 by Ensign John Linsley. His 
lineal descendants have always owned and occupied it. Few localities have as 
many homes built in colonial times, now" occupied and in fair condition, as North 
Farms. These houses are of the New England type, solid and well built, and 
from the outside give little evidence of their great age, but the massive oak 
frames, put together with wooden pins, the quaint corner cup-boards, tell the 
story. 

"I have it on the authority of Historian Wood that on the 12th of May, 1724, 
the town of Branford voted to build a meeting house at North Farms, on the 
knoll at tlie west side of the river, and that the meeting which passed this act 
was warned by Lieutenant Thomas Harrison and Joseph Morris. Nathaniel 
Harrison was moderator. The meeting appointed Isaac Foot, Lieutenant Rose, 
John Harrison, Daniel Barker and Joseph Rogers as building committee. The 
dimensions were to be forty-five by twenty-five feet. It was to have galleries 
around three sides, with many windows set with diamond shaped panes of glass. 
The Rev. Samuel Russell of Branford offered prayer at the raising of the frame. 

"The ground east of the meeting house, to the river, was appropriated as a 
burial place. The oldest memorial stone is one recording the death of Isaac 
Bartholomew in 1727. He was a j'oung man studying for the ministry at Yale. 
Many are the brown memorial stones with their quaint inscriptions and angel 
faces, one 'In Memory of Mrs. Martha, Relict of the late Samuel Baker, dec'd and 
formerly Relict of Rev. Thomas Goodsell, M. A., and ye child of ye Rev. John 
Davenport, dec'd, 2nd Pastor of ye Ch'h of Christ in Stamford, who died in the 
96th year of her age, Sept. 10, 1776.' This John Davenport, of course, was the 
son of the founder of New Haven. 



416 A MODERN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN 

"The first pastor over the church at North Farms was the Rev. Jonathan 
Merick, born 1700 in Spriu^eld, Mass., and graduated at Yale in 1725. His 
pastorate extended forty-three years, and he died June 27, 1772. From 1720 for 
a number of years families moved in and settled at North Farms. The Beers 
family came from Fairfield County, Thomas tJoodsell and Samuel Baker from 
Long Island. Barnabas Mulford and Edward Petty from Southampton, Long 
Island, the Fords from Milford and Jonathan and Ithiel Russell, sons of the 
Rev. Samuel Russell, came up from Branford. The former, Esquire Jonathan, 
built the house near 'Sibbie's Spring'. 

"Many of the landholders owned colored slaves, who were taught to read and 
write and attend church. They were seated on the stairs leading to the galleries. 
In 1773 and 1776. there was a colored population of between forty and fifty. 
About that time the Rev. Samuel Eells received pamphlets written by the 
Rev. Ezra Stiles and Rev. Samuel Hopkins of Newport, R. I., calling the atten- 
tion of the public to the sin of slavery, and nearly all the slaves at North Farms 
were given their freedom before the abolition of slavery in Connecticut. ' ' 

The Rev. Samuel Eells, the church's second pastor, made some history by him- 
self through service on a larger field than North Farms. Of him Mi-s. Holabird 
writes, giving "Wood's Early Church History in part as authority: 

"Rev. Samuel Eells was settled as pastor over the church at North Farms 
from 1769 to 1808. He was born at Middletown January 13, 1745, the son of 
Rev. Edward Eells and grandson of Rev. Nathaniel Eells of Scituate. He mar- 
ried Miss Butler of Middletown, but they had no children. Ordained over the 
church at North Farms on March 29, 1769, his ministry embraced the trying 
period of the Revolutionary struggle. On one occasion in the early part of 1777, 
when General Washington was in the vicinity of New York, his whole force not 
amounting to more than 1,500 men, he called upon the people of Connecticut to 
send down with all dispatch their quota of troops. The intelligence arrived on 
the Sabbath, while the people of North Farms were engaged in public worship. 
Mr. Eells read the important news from the pulpit and requested that those who 
were willing and ready to go should parade on the green immediately after the 
close of service. A company of sixty men was formed at once, and the Rev. 
Samuel Eells was chosen captain. The names of the other officers and privates 
were as follows : 

"First lieutenant. Samuel Baldwin; second lieutenant, Jacob Bunnell; ser- 
geants, Ebenezer Linsley, Isaac Foot, John White, Lud Munson, Abraham 
Poote; corporals, Uriah Collins, Samuel Harrison, Samuel Brown, Jacob Page; 
musicians, John Bunnell, Joseph Wlieaton, Moses Baldwin; privates, James 
Barker, Jacob Barker, Ambrose Baldwin, Daniel Baldwin, Phineas Baldwin, 
Ben.iamin Bartholomew, Samuel Bartholomew, Gideon Bartholomew, Jarius 
Bunnell, Jonathan Byington, Aaron Cook, Titus Cook, Hooker Frisbie, Isaac 
Prisbie, Samuel Ford, Gideon Goodrich, Daniel Hoadley, Samuel Hoadley, Ralph 
Hoadley, Jairas Harrison, Rufus Harrison, Isaac Hanford, Benjamin Harrison, 
Reuben Johnson, John Linsley. Jonathan Munson, James Pierpont, Samuel Peck, 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 417 

John Potter, Solomou Rose, Billy Rose, Jonathan Russell, Ebenezer Rogers, Her- 
man Rogers, Joseph Smith, Dow Smith, Allen Smith, Othuiel Stent, Ebenezer 
Trusdell, Solomon Talmage, Asa Todd, Jonathan Tyler, Medad Taiutor. " 

From early manhood Mr. Eells had been active in the cause of the colonist, 
and his utterances from the pulpit and elsewhere ring with the sj^irit of liberty. 
He had repeatedly declared against "the unjust and arbitrary measures of the 
British court," and called upon all good men "in duty to God and themselves and 
the country to resist and withstand." 

He might readily be recognized, holding such principles as tliese, as a vigorous 
leader for the company which went out, and we may not doubt that he gave a 
good account of himself and them in the war. He returned from the combat, 
however, able to serve the people for many years longer, and his death did not 
occur until 1808. In this connection it may be said that the record shows among 
other North Brauford men who served in this war Butler Harrison, son of 
Timothy and Lj^dia Butler Harrison, who was captured and was for some months 
on a prison ship ; Simeon Rose, who died while in service ; Oad Asher, colored, 
who served eight years as the servant of General Green; Gideon Rose, slave of 
Justice and Lydia Russell' Rose, who served during the war and was given his 
freedom afterward. 

"The next pastor after the death of the beloved Pastor Eells," continues Mrs. 
Holabird, "was the Rev. Charles Atwater, son of Jeremiah Atwater of New 
Haven, graduated from Yale in 1805, and having studied theology under Presi- 
dent Dwight. He was ordained over the church at North Farms March 1, 1809. 
He was a very successful preacher. During his ministry an Episcopal church 
was organized in this society. His pastorship of sixteen years terminated in his 
death February 21, 1825. The first three pastoi's of the church, whose united 
labors filled a century, died at their first post of duty, and were laid to rest just 
a few feet east of the old meeting house. The memorial stones were removed 
and placed in the cemetery across the street in 1886. 

"The one hundred and seventy-fifth anniversary of the Congregational church 
was held October 15, 1902. The Rev. Franklin Counti-yman in his very interest- 
ing address said : 'During all this period, longer than the period of the exisvence 
of the United States, the church has had thirteen ministers and every one of them 
received a degree from Yale college.' " 

From the same historical address we learn that eight pastors covered, each 
for a comparatively brief term, the period from 1825 to 1882. That year 
Mr. Countryman came and renewed the record for long and distinguished pas- 
torates, remaining twenty-three years until 1905. He was followed by Rev. 
Ernest L. Wismer, now of Bristol. Since tlien there has been a series of some- 
what brief pastorates (it has been said that North Brauford is almost too con- 
veniently situated with refei-ence to the Yale School of Religion), of which the 
latest are those of Rev. R. R, Kendall and Rev. C. E. Pickett, at present with 
the church. 

The first meeting house was erected in 1732. It is pictured as a bare, spire- 

Vol. I 2 7 



418 A MODERN HISTORY OP NEW HAVEN 

less structure of the very early type, looking from without much like a two- 
storied farmhouse. It served the people for about a century. In 1831 was 
completed the second building, the North Brauford meeting house of the noble 
New England sort which stood in the center of the town until 1907, when it was 
swept away by fire one cold Sunday morning. The following year the present 
building was erected. It is modern and ample for the church's need, but it 
does not satisfy the admirers of traditional church architecture as did its pred- 
ecessor. 

North Branford has always been a community of God-fearing men and 
women, and the church has occupied an important place in the village which, 
though not compact, centers around it. In the midst of a people whose origins 
have changed materially with the passage of time, it holds its torch of the true 
light aloft on a hill. The old church is typical of the tenacity of the faith of the 
Pilgrims in the midst of communities where the appreciation of their history 
and traditions has become the heritage of a diminishing few. 

This task has since 1812, however, been shared by a body of the Church of 
England. Ziou church has never been strong in numbers. A town of less than 
800 Protestant people, of whom nearly half, it must be remembered, are, in 
Northford, which has two churches of its own, has hardly the material for two 
substantial congregations. Yet Zion church has kept the faith, and offered to 
those who prefer it a constant service of its form of worship. At present, how- 
ever, it has no settled rector, sharing with the Episcopal cliurch in North Guil- 
ford the offices of leaders whom the churches of New Haven provide. 

Northford, in the valley of the Fai-m River, has been somewhat a community 
by itself. Its location in the line of the main highway to Middletown, where 
it also has secured a sort of commercial advantage from the railroad, has given 
it for a good part of its history an industrial character different from the rest 
of the town. Northford has had some brisk manufacturing industries, supported 
by the water power of Farm River. These in the beginning were mostly fulling 
and barkers' mills, where cloth was shrunk and cleaned and hides tanned. In 
1734 Edward Petty had a saw and fulling mill on the river near the center, 
and later Barnabas Woodcock at Long Hill, and John Maltby at "Pog" or 
"Paug" had industries of tlie same sort. 

Maltby Fowler seems to have been an inventor of some note, and about 1800 
developed machines for making metal buttons, spoons, combs, gimlets and pins. 
Thaddeus Fowler improved on the pin machine, and used it in Northford for 
some years. Over fifty years later the Northford -Manufacturing Company used 
Fowler's mill aud machines for rolling brass lamps and household goods. One 
may suspect that Meriden presently got this business, and the Northford ilanu- 
facturing Company gave it up about 1890. Fowler & Bartholomew made 
Northford hooks and eyes for some years, and later invented a machine for 
perforating tinware. They went out, and the factory was unused until another 
concern took it a few years ago for making electric light devices. Now it is 
vacant again. 




HOUSE BUILT BY HEZEKIAH REYNOLDS ABOUT ITiiO OR 1765, NOW TH IC llnyiK OK 
RALPH BEERS, NORTH BKAXFORl) 




IIOUSK BCH/r BY .JUSTUS ROSE IN 1771 TO REI'LACE LO(J HOUSK lillLT IN 1720. 
JUSTICE ROSE HOMESTEAD, NORTH BRANFORD 




COLONIAL IIOI'SIO lUILT BY TLMOTIIV Rl'SSELL IN 17114, NOW 'I'llhl llo.MK OF 
MBS. EMLY LINSLHY. NORTH BRANFORD 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 419 

More important is the character of the people who have made Northford. 
Here has been since 1750 a Congregational church, served by consecrated men 
and supported by faithful people. Its first pastor was Rev. Warham "Williams. 
At present the pastorate is vacant. Its first simple edifice was replaced in 1846 
and its present building was erected in 1907. There is also in Northford an 
Episcopal church, St. Andrew's, established in 1763. Its present rector is 
Rev. J. D. S. Pardee. These churches do not seem mighty in numbers, but 
perhaps a better evidence of the worth of the work they have done is found in 
the fact that in the past century or less Northford contributed thirty-nine men 
to the ministry, to law and to medicine, and thii-ty-one of its sous were grad- 
uates of Yale. 

Nortliford has its Masonic lodge, Corinthian, No. 103, P. & A. M., instituted 
in 1868. It meets in Association Hall, which accommodates also Northford 's 
vigorous Grange, No. 80, established in 1878. There is another Grange in North 
Branford, Totoket. No. 83, which meets in Totoket Hall. 

North Branford in 1861 raised a noble hickory flagiDole, the gift of an old 
-Jackson man, Col. Jonathan Rose, and unfurled a handsome flag on the identical 
spot where in 1776, after the Sabbath service, Pastor Eells called the young 
men of the congregation together and led them to war. 

In further distinction. North Branford was the first town in the United 
States to erect a memorial to its soldiers of the Civil war. On April 12, 1866, 
a handsome shaft was unveiled in memory of "Our Soldiers," as these lines, by 
"M. R., 1866," were read: 

"The loved ones calmly sleeping 

Where they fell on field removed, 
Lone post or picket station. 

Or starved in dreary prison cell 
For peace and for the nation." 

This memorial recognizes the deeds of these men from various regiments, as 
noted : 

Albert F. Wheaton, Corporal. Tenth C. V., aged 27. 

J. Henry Palmer, Co. K, Tenth C. V., aged 26. 

Walter A. Stone, Connecticut Artillery, aged 20. 

John S. Robinson, Co. F, Twenty-seventh C. V., aged 27. 

Josiah Johnson, Co. B, Twenty-seventh C. V., aged 23. 

Dayton R. Seranton, Co. F, Twelfth C. V.. aged 23. 

James H. Seranton, Co. F, Twelfth C. V., aged 22. 

Nathan Harrison, Twenty-seventh C. V. 

C. A. Harrison, Twenty-seventh C. V. 

Merwin Wheaton, Twenty-seventh C. V. 

Alfred Russell. First Sergeant. Co. H, Thirteenth C. V. 

Theodore Palmer, Thirteenth C. V. 

Horatio Stone, Sr., Tenth C. V. 



420 A MODERN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN 

The Tweuty-seveutli Connecticut, in which North Branford had five men, 
was recruited largely from this part of the state, and '-by the gallantry of it^ 
conduct has won for itself an enviable name and reputation." 

There is not a little justified pride of family in North Branford. Here still 
are the descendants of the Mulfords, the Pettys and the Harrisons. Maltby, 
Bronson, Page, Rose and Revere are among the names of the town's honored 
citizens. And abo\e all North Branford preserves such names and such citizens 
as the Russells and Holabirds. The former go back to that Rev. Samuel Rus- 
sell of the original Yale founders, in whose house in Branford, as we have seen, 
the Collegiate school had its actual beginning. His father, Rev. John Russell, 
came to America in 1635, settling in Cambridge (Newtown), Mass. Thirty- 
four years later he was leader of the band that settled Hadley, Mass. At his 
house the regicides Goffe and Whalley found refuge, and there Whalley died 
about 1678, and was buried in the cellar. Rev. Samuel Russell was born in 
1660 at Hadley, was gi-aduated from Harvard in 1681, and came to be pastor of 
the church at Branford, of which community, up to the time of its incorpora- 
tion in 1831, North Branford was an essential part. His grandson, Jonathan 
Russell, born in Branford in 1700, married Eunice Barker in 1720 and settled 
in North Farms. He had seven children, Eunice, Ebenezer, Jonathan, Abigail, 
Timothy, Lydia and Mary. Jonathan the younger, born in 1731, married Lydia 
Barker. They had eight children, Eunice, Lois. Irene. David, Jonathan, Esther, 
Lucretia and Augustus. 

With the Russells are associated by marriage the Holabirds, another prom- 
inent North Branford family. John Holabird, founder of this line, in its New 
England connection, was born in Litchfield County in 1768. He married in 
1788 Mary Belden. Their son, Charles Holabird, born in 1788, married Sarah 
Butler in 1816, and moved to Sheffield, Mass., where he was town clerk for a 
number of years — "Esquire Holabird." Their son Hiram B. Holabird married 
Maryette Vosburgh. Their grandson Charles F. Holabird, who was born in 
Sheffield in 1856, coming to North Branford in his youth, married there on 
December 25, 1877, Bertha H., daughter of Alfred and Caroline (Harrison) 
Russell. The}- have seven children : Roy Russell, who married Lillian Johnson 
of New Haven in 1899 : Charles Lovell ; Douglas Butler, who married Lelia B. 
Byington in 1911 ; Ralph Harrison, who married Carrie Kuope in 1910 ; Lucy 
Russell, May Vosburgh and Effie Rose. 

In connection with the Russell descent it is of interest to note that John 
Russell, eldest son of the Rev. Samuel Russell, who was graduated from Harvard 
and married Sarah Trowbridge of New Haven in 1707, had a daughter Rebecca 
who married Ezekiel Hayes, and was the grandmother of Rutherford Birchard 
Hayes, nineteenth president of the United States. 

To the rule that North Branford of today is a strictly agricultural com- 
munity there is one exception, but it is important. It is not generally known 
without the town, and perhaps, so systematically and smoothly is it carried on, 
not adequately by the people within, that in North Branford there has sprung 



AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY 421 

lip in a decade one of the largest industries of its kind in the country, known as 
the New Haven Trap Rock Company. About the year 1903 some undeveloped farm 
land at that portion of Totoket Mountain known as Great Hill was acquired and 
the Totoket Trap Rock Compauj- was organized by a group of men who did not 
carry the project through, and during the year 1914 the New Haven Trap Rock 
Company acquired the property. Development of the present quarry was com- 
pleted early in 1915 by the well known contracting engineers, C. W. Blakeslee 
& Sons, who also supervised the installation and construction of the crushing 
plant. Likewise the charter rights of the Branford Steam Railroad Company 
were purchased and an extension secured to the charter which, with the pur- 
chase of necessary right of way, made it possible for a six-mile railroad to be 
completed from the quarry to a connection with the New York, New Haven & 
Hartford Railroad and for the establishment of a dock terminal at Pine 
Orchard. In addition to these rail and water facilities there is also a connection 
with the Shore Line Electric Railway Company's tracks at North Branford and 
the layout of the whole scheme provides for a connection with the trolley tracks 
of the Connecticut Company at Pine On-hard, at such time as conditions shall 
call for such a connection. 

About 150 men are employed, giving opjiortunity for profitable work by 
many of the town's people under very favorable conditions. This, for a town 
whose population is 833, is a large labor opportunity. This is by far the 
largest trap rock quarry in this section of the country, and its future develop- 
ment gives promise that it may liecome the largest in America if not in tlie 
world. 

The officers and directors of the company are all New Haven men with the 
exception of E. H. Mather of Boston. The Hayden Stone Company of New 
York and Boston are very large stockholders in this enterprise and help gi-eatly 
in its organization and financing. The general ofificers of the company are : 

President, D. A. Blakeslee; vice president, T. R. Blakeslee: secretary, George 
E. Hall; treasurer, Clarence Blakeslee; general manager, W. Scott Eames. 

The general offices of the company are at 67 Church Street, New Haven. 



INDEX 



Abbott, Rev. J. S. C, 119 

Acme Wire Company, 183, 190, 247 

Acoustics of the ' ' Bowl, ' ' 200 

" Adiioiidaek Murray," 291 

Adler, Max, 228 

Admirable Harbor, 64 

Advent churches, 135 

Advertising age had not arrived, 62 

Advertising New Haven products, 185 

"Air Line," The, 208 

Alien population in New Haven, 218 

Amendments in thirty-six years, 101 

American Bank & Trust Company, 241 

American citizenship taught, 224 

Americans in the makmg, 217 

Amphitheater, Yale's, 194 

"An act for liberty to erect a Collegiate 

School," 23 
Ancestral traditions, 217 
Ancient Order of Foresters, 278 
Ancient Order of Hibernians, 279 
Ancient Order of United Workmen, 278 
Andirons and fenders, 192 
Andrew, Samuel, 23 
And who did not participate? 52 
Animosity changed to harmony, 48 
Anketell, Edward A., 234 
Annexation in 1883, 103 
Area of swamps and ponds, 95 
Areas and names of city squares, 98 
Arms industry, 246 
Arnold, Benedict, 252 
Artificial Lake, 95 
Art School collection, 44 
Associate school superintendents, 233 
Associated Civic societies, 159 
Athletic field at Yale, 194 
Athletics at college, 30 
Atlantic cable, The, 211 
Attendance at Harvard-Yale game '16, 19S 
Auditorium, The new, 36, 187 
Austin, Rev. David, 85 
Austrians in New Haven, 221 



Automobile fittings, 190, 192 
Auto works, 191 
^wakening has results, 41 



Bacon, Rev. Dr. Francis, 81 

Bacon, Rev. Dr. Leonard, 112 

Bailey, William B., 229 

Baldwin, Simeon E., 233 

Bancroft Foote Boys ' Club, 41 

Bank deposits, total of New Haven, 242 

Bankers, New Haven 's, 241 

Banking institutions of New Haven, 240 

Banks and Bankers, 226 

Baptist Congregations, 128 

Baptist Ministers, 129 

Baptist Pastorates, 231 

Barnes Tool Company, 189 

Bassett & Company, John E., 248 

Battell Chapel, 39 

Baiunann Rubber Company, 190 

Beach, John K., 233 

Beacon Hill, 97 

Beaver Ponds Park, 95 

Bedell, William V., 202 

Beecher, E. B., 176 

Beede, Frank H., 232. 

Beers, Clifford W., 228 

Begin to build the "Bowl," 196 

Beginning of Harmony, 36 

Beginning of New Haven manufacturing, 175 

Bench, The New Haven, 233 

Benevolent Protective Order of Elks. 279 

Bennett, Philo S., 87 

Bennett, Thomas G. and Winchester, 246 

Bennett, William L., 233 

Bennett fountain, 87 

Berkshire i-ailroad division, 208 

Better understanding, 37 

Bicentennial, Yale 's, 36 

Bigelow Company, The, 183, 191 

Billion tons of merchandise, 209 

Bingham, Hiram, 232 

Blackstone, John, 334 



423 



424 



INDEX 



Blackstoiie, William, 334 

Blake, Heuiy T., 80 

Blakeslee, Clarence, 109 

Blakeslee, Dennis A., 229 

Blakeslee, C. W. & Sons, 249 

Blank book making, 192, 246 

Blue meeting house, 114 

Boaiil of education, 42, 233 

Boarilman apprentice shops, 138 

Boardman Manual Training School, 71 

Boat propellers made in New Haven, 192 

Boilers, manufacturers of, 191 

Book Binding Exhibit, 192 

Book of the Pageant, 40 

Books in Public Library, 155 

Bo'ston & Maine, The, 209 

Bowl, The, 47, 194 

Bowl can be enlarged, as regards seating 
capacity, 200 

Bowl now property of Yale, 202 

Boy Scout movement, 250 

Boys ' Club, 41 

Bradley, William, 15, 363 

Bradley Park, Merideu, 288 

Brauford, 330 

Eranford a summer resort, 337 

Brauford banks, 334 

Branford industries, 335 

Brauford 's church history, 331 

Branford 's early settlement, 330 

Branford 's foreign population, 225 

Branford 's fraternal societies, 335 

Branford 's schools, 333 

Breckenridge, L. P., 232 

Brewer, Mrs. Henry, 262 

Brewster, Frederick F., 261 

Brewster, James, 175, 261 

Brick and clay products, 192 

"Brick Eow," 17 

Bright dreams shattered, 9 

"Britannia," 302 

Broadway Bank & Trust Company, 241 

Brockett, John, 5, 80 

Brown, Charles R., 230 

"Brown Game," annual institution, 47 

Buckingham, Stephen, 22 

Building and Loan Associatiou of New 
Haven, 242 

Buildings, Streets and Shade Trees Commit- 
tee, 161 

Bulkeley, Gershom, 22 

"Bully Club," The, 30: abolished, 31 

"Bunch of Grapes" tavern, 270 

Burial grounds must be found, 86 

Burton, Rev. R. B., 120 

Bury wires, 77 

Bushnell, Cornelius S., 250 



Bushnell, Nathan T., 248 

Bu.shnell memorial, 250 

Business Men 's Association, 73 

Business schools, 147 

Butler Business School, 147 

Butterworth, Mrs. F. S., 262 

"Button, button, who's got the button?" 193 



Calvary Baptist, 129 

Camp Hiram, 180, 246 

Camp Walter, 246 

Camp Meade, 113 

Campner, Samuel, 51 

Canal, An interesting, 203 

' ' Canal fever ' ' in New Haven, 204 

Canal of 1825 a losing venture, 206 

Canal project of 1822, 205 

Canby, Professor, 40 

Candee, Leverette, 175 

Candee & Company, The L., 190 

Capacity of Yale Bowl compared with other 

famous structures, 198 
Capital invested in New Haven factories, 183 
Capital of twelve million in manufactures, 67 
Capitalization of Telephone Comjiany, 214 
Carnegie Library, 156 
Carriage and auto lamps at Manufacturers' 

exhibit, 192 
Cai-riage building, 182 
Carriage hardware, 247 
Carrington, John B., 243 
Castings, steel and semi-steel, 192 
Catholic churches, 130; in 1917, 131 
Catholic pastors, 131, 231 
Cattle and horses pastured on Green, 86 
Census figures of New Haven, 217 
Center church, 69 
Center church on the Green, 51 
Center of quarry industry, 338 
Center of war service work, 258 
Century Brass Company, The, 192 
' ' Century of Meriden, ' ' 300 
Cliamber of Commerce, New Haven, 42, 227 
Chamber of Commerce History, 158 
Chamberlain Company, The, 248 
Chancel window of Center church. 111 
Changed in 280 years. 111 
Changed population, 63 
Chapman, John Jay, 50 
Charter revision a winter sport, 106 
Charter revision in 1915, 108 
Charter revision of 1821, 101 
Chauney, Israel, 22 
Cheever, Ezekiel, 7 
Cheshire, 357 



INDEX 



425 



Cheshire church history, 358 

Cheshire industries, 361 

Cheshire lodges, etc., 361 

Cheshire public library, 361 

Cheshire 's early settlers, 357 

Cheshire 's pioneer beginnings, 357 

Cheshire's schools, 360 

Cheshire's Soldiers' Monument, 361 

Chief Justice, 233 

Children's building, 164 

Children's jubilees, 90 

Children's room in library oijened, 152 

Chillingwortli, Felix, 95 

Chinese, Japanese, Indians represented in 

New Haven, 222 
Chittenden, Russell H., 232 
Chorus of 500 people, 54 
Clirist church, 130 
Christian Culture Associations, 71 
Christian Science, 135 
"Chronicles" (Blake's), 93 
Church blown down, 88 
Church of the Ascension, 125 
Church of the Redeemer, 41 
Churchmen of New Haven, 226, 230 
Chureh-State Republic, 8 
Churches of New Haven, 111 
Cigar making, 182 

Citizens of prominence, New Haven, 238 
City and town consolidated, 104 
"City Beautiful" plan, 45, 227 
City Hall, New Haven, 238 
City Manager plan, 108 
City Mission founded, 41 
City of Elms, 85 
City of churches, 230 
City Point, 96 
City squares, 92 

City squares, their names and areas, 98 
City wards increased to 10, 102 
Civic development, 158, 172 
Civic Federation, The, 41, 72 
Civic Federation Committee, 165 
Civic Improvement Committee, 75 
Civil Service Board, 42 
Civil Service Commission created, 104 
Clark, Captain Daniel, 15 
Clay products, 192 
Clean City Week, 65 
Clean New Haven, 65 
Cleaveland, L. W., 235 
Clinton Parkway, 97 
Clock industry. The, 175, 189, 246 
Clock movements, 180 
Closing scenes of pdgeant at ' ' Bowl, ' ' 58 
Clothing- firms of New Haven, 248 
Clubs for boys, girls, men, women, 69 



Coal imported into New Haven district, 209 

College ' ' pranks, ' ' 33 

College Street church, 118; sells building, 66 

Collegiate and Commercial Institute, 137 

Collegiate School, The, 16 

Colonial legislature, 85 

Colonial origins and history of Meriden, 284 

Colonial Wallingford, 319 

Color printers, 246 

Colored Methodists, 127 

Colored population, 222 

Commencement for "All of College," 25 

Commission ou Public Memorials, 105 

Committee cliosen by Mrs. Ives, 154 

Committee of 15, 109 

Committee of 50, 10,S 

Committee of 21, 196 

Communication and transportation, 203 

Community Center work, 224 

Compensation to Indians, 12 

Compulsory school system, 20 

Condemn encroachment on Green, 83 

Condensed tho' crude charter, 101 

Confectionery industry, 247 

Congested regions of New Haven, 223 

Congestion in city 's center, 163 

Congregational Club, 281 

Congregational pastorates, 231 

Congress, members of, from New Haven, 

234 
Connecticut bar, leaders of the, 233 
Connecticut Business University, 147 
Connecticut Company, The, 243 
Connecticut Congress of Mothers, 267 
Connecticut Journal, 243 
Connecticut river and canal project, 205 
Connecticut Savings Bank, New Haven, 239 
Connecticut Society of Colonial Wars, 94 
Connecticut Telephone Company, 213 
Consolidation of smaller railroads, 208 
Consolidation of town and city, 104 
Construction engineers, 249 
Construction of street car lines, 210 
Construction of the "Bowl," 197 
Contagious Disease Hospital, 104 
Contractor, a foremost, 229 
Contrast, New Haven now and in 1720, 28 
Contrast of the centuries, 61 
Corset Industry, The, 182, 190 
Cost of "Bowl," 202 
Cost of Canal project of 1822, 205 
Cost of New Haven Courthouse, 234 
Cotton gin, 175 

Council of Trade and Labor unions, 281 
Country Club, 281 

County Courthouse, New Haven, 235 
County seat. New Haven as the, 233 



426 



INDEX 



Courier, The, 243 

Course of lectures (civic matters), 75 

Courthouse, architects of new, 234 

Courthouse, building of the new, 234 

Courthouse, committee on building new, 234 

Courthouse, contractors of, 234; cost of, 234 

(jourthouse, paintings in new, 234 

Courthouses of New Haven, 233 

Courts and Lawyers, 226, 233 

Cowles & Company, 190 

Coy, George W., 211 

Crawford, George W., 109 

Crawford Sectional Oven, 191 

Crosby, Mr. and Mrs. Robert A., 223 

Cutler, Rev. Timothy, 25 

Cuyier, T. DeWitt, Yale 74, 196 



D 



Daggett, David, Yale 79, 196 

Daggett, Leonard M., 109 

Dairy products excel, 193 

Dancing under projjer conditions, 265 

D. A. R. Chapters, 263 

Davenport church, 69 

Davenport, Pastor John, 1 

Day Company, The, 191 

Day, George P., 232 

Death of Theodore Winthrop, Scene of 

Pageant, G. A. R. participating, 57 
Defense against British invasion, 90 
Degree of Honor, The, 278 
Delaware Company, The, 9 
Delicacies from Connecticut farms, 190 
Denisou, Rev. R. C, 114 
Dennen, Rev. S. R., 115 
Department of Charities and Correction, 105 
Derby Choral Society, 54 
Derby Turnpike tolls, 104 
Detail work left to women, 260 
Development, The Dual, 19 
Development, Civic and Material, 172 
Development of Park System. 92 
Diamond, Frank J., 144 
Diamond Match Company, 190 
Dickermau, Emma E., 352 
Dickerman family, 353 
Dies and molds at Manufacturers' Exhibit, 

191 
Digging the ditch of 1825, 206 
Dillon & Douglass, 248 
Dimensions of Yale Bowl, 198 
Directors Chamber of Commerce, 168 
Directors of Manufacturers' Exhibit, 186 
Directory printing. New Haven center for, 

192, 227 
Discipline of Governor Eaton, 19 



Dispensary, The New Haven, 236 

Display rooms of Manufacturers' Exhibit, 

187 
Distances of perspectives at "Bowl," 199 
Distinguished men receive Yale degrees, 38 
Dixwell Monument, 1849, 86 
Doors thrown open, 44 
Doyle Company, John T., 190 
Dreams of new modes of communication, 

215 
Dress coat of scarlet, etc., 252 
Drills on Green in 1917, for World War, 90 
Drummer calls to worship, 6 
Dummer, Jeremiah, 10 
Dummer's aid sought, 26 
Dunn, Abigail, 148 
Dutch pioneers, 1 
Dwight Place church, 119 
Dwig-ht, President, 232 



E 



Eagles, The, 279 

Early and later growth of Methodist 
churches, 126 

Early churches clustered on Green, 67 

Early clockmakers of Connecticut, 180 

Early families of North Haven, 364 

Early life of Wallingford, 319 

Early means of communication, 203 

Early Orange, 309 

Early settlers in North Branford, 416 

East and West Rock, 92 

Eastern Machinery Company, 192 

Eastern Screw Corporation, 192 

"East Farms," 14 

East Haven, 368 

East Haven as a suburban residence, 369 

East Haven churches, 371 

East Haven industries, 372 

East Rock Park, 93 

Eaton, Theophilus, 2 

Echoing portals of the Bowl, 54 

Economic Club, 173 

Edgewood Park, 63 

Edgewood, "Show Park," 94 

Editors, prominent New Haven, 243 

Educational leaders, 226 

Education of foreigners, 223 

Educator, an eminent, 229 

Educators of New Haven, 232 

Edwards, Jonathan, 17 

Eells, Rev. Samuel, 416 

Eight hundred manufacturing establish- 
ments, 67 

Eighty-two churches, 70 

Electric fans, 183 



INDEX 



427 



Electric lights come, 62 

Electric line, the first in New Haven, 210 

Electric railway had come, 62 

Electric toys, 183 

Electric toy railway.s exhibit, 192 

Electrification of railroads, 209 

Elevators "made in New Haven," 192 

Eleven coats of trucking cloth, etc., 12 

Elks, B. P. 0. E., 279 

Elliott, Howard, 243 

Elliott, Thomas E., engraver, 192 

Elm City Free Kindergarten Society, 262 

Elm City Hospital, 237 

Elms and maples planted on Green iu 
1839, 85 

Ely & Son, A. G., 193 

Emery manufacture, 190 

Emigrants in New Haven, 216 

End justified faith, 50 

Engineering activities of New Haven, 24S 

Engineering problems of the "Bowl," 196 

Engineers of promiueuee, 249 

English & Mersick Company, 192 

English and Scotch cla&sed as ' ' foreigners, 
218 

English, Henry F., 93 

English stock, the original settlers, 216 

Engravers' Exhibit, 192 

Envious eyes on the Green, 82 

Episcopal pastorates, 231 

Erector & Mysto sets, 183 

Ericsson, John, 250 

Escort to General Washington, 254 

Evening Leader, The, 244 

Evening schools, 142, 223 

Every man a soldier, 251 

Evolution of New Haven, 216 

Excavation for the "Bowl," 197 

Excursion steamers, 208 

Exhibit of manufactures, 185 : first com- 
mittee, 186; building of, 186 

Expansion of electric street railways, 210 

Expense of library maintenance, 156 



Factories outwardly old-fashioned, 66 
"Fair Haven East," 14 
Fair Haven Heights, 97 
"Faire Haven," A, 13 
Famous football games, 194 
Farm Bureau Association, 170, 263 
Farm supply business, 248 
Farmington Canal Company, 20.j 
Farmington canal completed, 206 
Faruam, Henry W., 232 
Farnsworth, Fred B., 239 



Federated Council of One Hundred, 159 

Fenwick, Col. George, 13 

Ferry, C. A., builder of the "Bowl," 195 

Ferry Street Congregational church, 122 

Field, Cyrus West, 211 

Fifty nationalities, 88 

Filing cases exhibit, 192 

Fine drives, 95 

Fire brick manufacture, 192 

Fire escapes, manufacture of, 192 

Fireplace fixtures, 192 

Fireplace screens, 191 

Firemen and students clash, 31 

First board of directors, 150 

First charter, 100 

First electric car "stuck," 62 

First game at the "Bowl," 198 

First meeting house, 6 

First Methodist church, 88 

First National Bank, New Haven, 241 

First place of Yale, 25 

First state house, 85 

First surveyor, 5 

First Swedish church, 128 

First telephone exchange in America, 62 

First telephone, 16 

First to match hopes and faith with work, 
74 

First telephone in New Haven, 211 

First town library, 89 

First trains running, 207 

Fisher, Irving, 232 

Fiske, Phineas, 25 

Fitch, Major John, 24 

Five hundred manufacturing establish- 
ments, 177 

Five wells on the Green, 87 

Florence Crittenton Home, 261 

Flour mill near East Rock, 7 

Folding Boxes manufacture, 191 

Folding Mattress Company, 193 

Folk ilances, drills, etc., 91 

Football and baseball fields, 95 

Football at Yale, 194 

Football crowds at Bowl, 198 

"Football nights" at the Hyperion, 32 

Football tickets as rewards of merit, 47 

Foot Guards, 90 

Foot Ciuards iu World War, 255 

Foreign population of New Haven in 1918, 
219 

Foreign races flock to New Haven indus- 
tries, 216 

Foresters of America, 278 

Fort Hale, 97 

"Fort Hill," 368 

Fort St. George, 10 



428 



INDEX 



Fort Wooster, 97 

Founding of Mauufaeturers' Exhibit, 186 

Four schools in one, 71 

Frances Benton Memorial School, 146 

Fraternal Benefit League, 27S 

Fraternities and clubs, 269 

"Free Planters," The, 82 

Freight elevators made in New Haven, 192 

French Canadians small in number, 222 

Functions of Civic Federation, 165 

Furniture firms of New Haven, 248 

Furniture, manufacture of, 193 

G 

Gallagher, John C, 234 

Gamble & Desmond, 248 

Gaol, The, 7 

Gaol and whipping post, 85 

Gas appliances on exhibit, 191 

Gas coke on exhibit, 191 

Gas Company, New Haven, 242 

Gas fittings, 192 

"Gas for all purposes," 191 

Gas Light Company, The, 191 

Gates chained at "Curfew," 5 

Ga^'lord Farm Sanatorium, 323 

General Washington welcomed on the 

Green, 90 
Geometric Tool Companj-, 190, 247 
German Baptists, 129 
German element, 221 
German Methodist church, 127 
German population in New Haven, 218 
Ghetto, New Haven's, 220 
Gilbert, Albert C, 183 
Gilbert, Cass, 77 
Gilbert, Jonathan, 15, 285 
Gilbert toys, 183 

Girl delinquency, a study of problem, 164 
Globe Silk Works, 193 
Goffe and Whalley, 94 
Golden Cross, 279 
Good Government Club, 47 
Good old New England days, 216 
Goodyear, Charles, 175 
Government leaders, 226 
Governor Yale, 26 
Governor's Foot Guard, 251 
Governors New Haven furnished, 233 
Gown laid aside, 38 
Grace Hospital, 237 
Grades taught in various schools, 139 
Graham & Company, James, 192 
G. A. R. in Pageant (Hooker), 57 
Grand Army posts, 279 
Grand Avenue Baptist, 129 
Graduates' Club, 159, 237, 280 
Graves, S. I., 144 



Grays in Civil War, 25 1 

"Greate Shippe," lost with £5000, 9 

Great variety of products, 64 

Greeley, General, 229 

Green an arena of free speech, 89 

Green an educational campus, 89 

Green a training ground and military 

field, 90 
Green first fenced in 1800, 86 
Green in New Haven model for other towns, 

91 
Green, The, 6 
Green the heart and center of New Haven 

life, 87 
Green the seat of judicial tribunals, 90 
Greist Manufacturing Company, 190 
Gridiron, the Yale, 196 
Grocery houses of New Haven, 248 
Grove Street Cemetery opened, 1797, 86 
Ground covered by "Bowl," 197 
Growth of Meriden, 301 
Growth of telephone system, 213 
Guide books for immigrants, 263 
Guilford, 374 

Guilford a melting pot, 374 
Guilford a paradox, 374 
Guilford banks, 380 
Guilford Church History, 377 
Guilford fraternal societies, etc., 380 
Gnilford Free Library, 380 
Guilford geographically, 374 
Guilford industries, 381 
(tuilford, two sous of, 383 
(Juilford's founders, 376 
Guilford 's newspapers, 380 
Guilford's origin, 375 
(iuilford's prominent families, 382 
(iuilford 's schools, 379 
Gunu, George M., 241 

H 

Hack-saws a specialty, 193 

Hadley, President, 39, 232 

Hale, Nathan, monument, 227 

Halleck, Fitz-Greene, 383 

Halleck 's writings, 386 

Hamden, 342 

Hamden brick industry in 1645, 346 

Hamden churches, 347 

Hamden industries, 345 

Hamden schools, 347 

Hammonassctt settlement, 400 

Hampden, John, 15 

Handling crowds at the "Bowl," 199 

Hanging Hills of Meriden, 93 

Hard to start New Haven, 74 

Hardware stores. New Haven, 248 

Harmonic Club, 280 



INDEX 



429 



Harmony "s beginnings, 36 

Hartford and New Haven Railroad, 207 

Harvard games at Yale, 194 

Haynes, Rev. A. J., 114 

Health Survey of New Haven, 165 

Hector, The, 1 

Hemingway, Samuel, 241 

Henderson, Yaudell, 109 

Hendryx Company, A. B., 183 

Hewlett, George T., 233 

Highways, Old-time, 204 

Hill, Everett G., 109 

Hillhouse, Jamea, 85, 137 

Hillhouse, James A., 233 

Hillhouse high school, 70 

Hindinger, George W., 192 

History of New Haven Banks, 240 

History of New Haven Telephone, 211 

Hogg.son & Pettis Company, 191 

Home for Friendles,s, 261 

Home Rule Bill, 105 

Hooker, Brian, on Pageant, 57 

Hooker, Thomas, 241 

Hojikins, Edward, 9, 21 

Hopkins Grammar School, ii 

Horse Guands, 251 

Hospitals, New Haven, 236 

Hotel men, well known New Haven, 243 

Hotel Taft, 243 

Hotels in New Haven, 243 

Houghton, Rev. R. M., 116 

Housing conditions, 163 

Howard Avenue Church, 121 

Howards' Company, The, 192 

Humphrey Street Church, 121 

Hyperion Theater, 39 



Interior house trim on exhibit, 193 

Insurance commissioner, 234 

Insurance companies. New Haven, 242 

Intolerance, 4 

"Iphigeuia in Tauris, " presented at 

"Bowl," 200 
Irish immigration, 216 

Irish population drops in percentage, 221 
Iron, 220 million tons of, 209 
Italian Baptist, 130 
Italian invasion. The, 218 
Italian physicians, 238 
Ives Company, H. B., 189 
Ives, Joseph, 357 
Ives, Mrs. Mary E., 153 



Japanese know New Haven products, 190 
Jcpson, Harry B., 46 
Jepson, Prof. Benjamin, 46 
Jewish congregations, 132 
Jewish Rabbis, 133, 231 

Jewish Russians arrive in large numbers, 218 
Job printing exhibit, 192 
Jocelyn, Rev. S. E., 116 
Journal-Courier, The, 243 
Journals, technical and scientific, 244 
Judd, Edward P., long the bookseller of New- 
Haven, 248 
"Judge's Cave," 94 
Judges of New Haven, 233 
Julin, Charles, 109 
Julin, Charles E., 185, 227 
Junior high school, 139 
Justice meted on the Green, 84 



Ideal New Haven, The, 74 

Ik Marvel, 40 

Illiteracy restriction, 219 

Immauuel Baptist, 129 

Immigrant development of New Haven, 

217 
Imports and exports of New Haven, 209 
Improved housing for wage-earners, 162 
Improved Order of Heptasophs, 278 
Improved Order of Red Men, 278 
Independent Order of B 'rith Abraham, 279 
Independent Order of Foresters, 278 
Indian Head, 93 

Individual Manufacturers' Exhibits, ISS 
Industrial concerns, 183 
Industrial expansion, 63 
Industries multiply, 177 
Interesting things for the machinist, 192 



Keep Green clear of buildings, 90 
Kennedy, Major John B., 255 
Kent, Charles Foster, 232 
Kingsbury, Frederick J., 228 
Knight, H. C, 109 
Knights of Columbus, 274 
Knights of Columlnis Club, 280 
Knights of Columbus Fund, 145 
Knights of the Golden Eagle, 278 
Knights of the Maccabees, 278 
Knights of Pythias, 278 
Knights of St. Patrick, 280 
Knitting for Red Cross, 145 



Labor papers, 245 
Ladies of the Maccabees, 278 
Lafayette visits New Haven, 254 
Lake Saltoustall watershed, 79 



430 



INDEX 



Lambert, T). D., 144 
Lamps and fixtures, 192 
Lamps "made in New Haven," 247 
Lancasterian School, 137 
■ Landing of Quiunipiac Pilgrims, 1 
Languages and races represented in New 

Haven, 219 
Lathes "made in New Haven," 191 
Launching the James Hillhouse at Farm- 

ington, 206 
Law firms in New Haven, 235 
Law history of New Haven, 233 
Lawyers and judges, 233 
Lawyers of New Haven, 226, 228, 234 
Leaders in education, 226 
Leaders in Meriden life, 290 
Leading engineers, 249 
Lee, Wilson H., 227 

Lee Company, The Wilson H., 192, 246 
Leete, Rev. W. W., 120 
Legal history of New Haven, 233 
Lewis, Henry G., 149 
Liberty bonds, thrift stamps, 145 
Liberty pole on Green, 86 
Libraries of New Haven, 148 
Library building ready in 1911, 154 
Library opened, February, 1887, 151 
Library opens children's room, 152 
Library's first board of directors, 150 
Lighthouse Point, 14 
Lincoln, Allen B., 70, 229 
Lines of manufacture in New Haven, 183 
Lionel Mfg. Company, 183, 192 
Lithographers, 192 
' ■ Living conditions among negroes in niiif li 

ward," 164 
Location and area of city squares, 98 
Locks and hinges exhibit, 192 
Long Island Navigation Company, 208 
Looking backward to beginnings, 1 
Lowell House, 223; children's drills at, 91; 

settlement work, 262 
Loyal Temperance leagues, 279 
Lumber used in New Haven manufactures, 

209 
Luther, Rev. C. P., 119 
Lutheran congregations, 134 
Lutheran pastors, 231 

M 

Machine fittings, 191 
Machine Gun Comi)aiiy, 258 
"Made in New Haven," 187 
Machinery makers, 182 
"Made a day of it," 84 
Madison, 397 



Madison churches, 400 

Madison industries, 402 

Madison shipbuilding, 402 

Madison 's fine beach, 402 

Madison 's modern industries, 403 

Madison 's schools, 404 

Madison's two public lilirarifs, 404 

Magic Token, 26 

Maher, Stephen J., 237 

Makers of modern New Haven, 226 

Making Americans, 217 

Malleable Iron Fittings Company, 192 

Malley Company, Edward, 248 

Mansfield, Burton, 234 

Manufactories, New- Haven's foremost, 183 

Manufacturer, A leading, 227 

Manufacturers ' exhibit, 185 

Manufacturers of Wallingford, 325 

Manufacturing in New Haven, 174 

Many charter amendments, 102 

Marble, Edwin, 166 

Marett, Philip, 148 

Marett credited on book plates, 151 

Marett 's library fund, 149 

Jfarine hardware, 192 

Maritime transportation, 207 

Market house of 1785, 85 

Market place, 6 

Marshall, Smith & Co., 192 

Masonry in New Haven, 269 

Master of Pageant, 49 

Matches and match niacliinery, 176 

Mather, Cotton, 10 

Mather, Samuel, 22 

Mathewson, Judge A. McClcllan, 47 

Mattresses, A tempting line of, 193 

Maurer, Rev. Dr. O. E., 51, 230 

Mayo Radiator Company, 192 

Mayor Manager plan, 108 

Mayors of New Haven, several, 2.39 

Mechanics Bank, 241 

Mechanics Library, 148 

Medical College riot, 31 

Medical notables of New Haven, 237 

Medical practitioners, 226 

Medical School, Yale, 236 

Meeting house voted in 1724, 415 

Meigs, Frederick, 248 

Mellen, Charles S., 243 

Melting pot, New Haven as, 216 

Men in public service, 226 

Men who have made Meriden, 290 

Men's Clubs, Confederation of, 172 

Mendel & Freedman, 248 

Mental Hygiene, 228 

Merchants National Bank, New Haven, 241 

Mercliants of New Haven, 247 



INDEX 



431 



Merick, Rev. Jouathau, 416 
Meriden, 284 

Merideu, Accessible city, 288 
Meriden, Area of, 287 
Meriden, Men who have made, 290 
Merideu census, 1910, 301 
Merideu City Hospital, 296 
Merideu churches, 287 
Meriden churches and schools, 290 
Meriden cutlery, 303 
Meriden cut glass, 304 
Meriden Farm, 285 
Merideu tire department, 289 
Merideu fraternal orders, 296 
Merideu lawyers, 290 
Meriden manufactories, 305 
Merideu physicians, 290 

Meriden printing and publishing concerns, 305 
Meriden jmblie library, 296 
Merideu pulilic parks, 288 
Meriden social clubs, etc., 296 
Meriden water supply, 289 
iteriden 's banks, 298 
Jleriden 's big fire, 289 
Meriden 's educational equipment, 294 
Meriden 's foreign population, 224 
Meriden 's growth, 301 
Meriden 's lawyers, 297 

Meriden 's newspapers, past and present, 298 
Meriden 's physicians, 297 
Meriden 's sewer system, 289 
Merideu 's social progress, 290 
Mersick & Company, C. S., 248 
Meserve, Eev. I. C, 120 
Metal cornices, Manufacture of, 191 
Metal racks, 192 
Methodist ministers, 127, 231 
Mexican bonier service, 257 
Mileage of New Haven railroad system, 209 
"Milford" hack saw blades, 189 
Military New Haven, 251 
Mill River, 342 
Mill Rock, 342 

Miner, Read and Tullock, 248 
Mirrors made iu New Haven, 193 
Mishkan, Israel, 132 

Mistakes of two and three-quarters cen- 
turies, 161 
Mrs. Ives donates library building, 153 
Mitchel, Donald G., 40 
Mitchell, Rev. John, 117 
Modern charter ' ' on its way, ' ' 72 
Modern New Haven, 226 
Modern "Woodmen of America, 278 
Momauguin, 54 
Monitor, The first, 250 
Monitor Park, 250 



Monson Company, Charles, 248 

Montowese, 12 

Moran, James T., 229 

More foreigners than "natives," 220 

More Germans and Swedes arrive, 219 

Morehouse, Cornelius S., 246 

More trees planted in 1808, 85 

Morgan & Humiston Co., 192 

Mormons, 135 

Morning News, The, 244 

Morrill, A. B., 70, 232 

Morris Cove, 2 

Morris Plan Bank, 242 

"Mosquito Control," 163 

Moss, Joseph, 23 

Mossman, Rev. W. D., 41 

Mother and the daughters, The, 11 

Mothers' Aid Society, 229, 262 

Motor vehicle manufacture, 191 

Mount Carmel, 348 

Mount Carmel Children's Home, 352 

Mount Carmel churches, 351 

Mount Carmel manufacturers, 350 

Mount Carmel, Prominent families of, 354 

Mount Carmel rauge, 342 

Mount Carmel scenery, 355 

Mount Carmel schools, 352 

Mount Tom, 348 

Multiplying motor cars, 83 

Mnnger, Rev. Dr. T. T., 114 

Munitions manufacture, 177 

Murray, William H. H., 291, 383 

JTurray, A joke he told on himself, 393 

Murray 's discovery of the Adirondacks, 390 

Murray's love for "the perfect horse," 389 

Musical attractions at the "Bowl," 200 

Musical instruments, 304 

Mysto Manufacturing Company, 183 

N 

Nathan Hale statue, 227 

Nationalities represented in New Haven, 219 

National Folding Box & Paper Company, 183, 

191 
National Guard to Mexican border, 118 
National Pipe Bending Company, The, 191 
National Savings Bank, 243 
National Tradesmen's Bank, 241 
Naval Militia, 168 
Naval Veterans, 279 
Negro population, 222 
Nettleton, C. H., 242 

New England community, A typical, 217 
New England and foreigners, 217 
New Haven— a Babel, 217 
New Haven and New York steamboat lines, 

207 



432 



INDEX 



New Haven banks, 240 

New Haven Button Company, The, 193 

New Haven Cailets, 254 

New Haven charters, 100 

New Haven eloeks, 180 

New Haven Clock Company, Exhiljit of, 189 

New Haven Council of Jewish Women, 263 

New Haven County Courthouse, 235 

New Haven County Farm Bureau, 263 

New Haven Dairy Company, 193 

New Haven-Derby turnpike, 203 

New Haven Dispensary, 236 

New Haven District Telephone Company, 211 

New Haveners want Yale to pay taxes, 34 

New Haven Gas Light Company, 191, 242 

New Haven Girls' Club, 263 

New Haven Grays, 256 

New Haven Green, 80 

New Haven Harbor, 77 

New Haven Hospital, 2.16 

New Haven in world war, 258 

New Haven, headquarters of the railroad, 
quarters, 209 

New Haven Lawn Club, 281 

New Haven Machine Screw Comj)any, 193 

New Haven Manufacturers' Exhibit, 185 

New Haven Manufacturing, 174 

New Haven Manufacturing Company, 191 

New Haven merchandise demands 120,000 
railroad cars, 209 

New Haven Mirror and Novelty Company, 
193 

New Haven never a boom town, 61 

New Haven Palladium, 244 
New Haven Pastors' Union, 162 

New Haven Post Boy, 243 

New Haven Register, 244 

New Haven schools, 136 

New Haven State Normal and Training 

School, 145 
New Haven Steamboat Company, The, 207 
New Haven Symphony Orchestra, 36 
New Haven telephone history, 211 
New Haven Trades Council, 282 
New Haven Truck & Auto Works, 191 
New- Haven Water Company, 78, 242 
New Haven Woman 's Club, 263 
New Haven 's churches. 111 
New Haven's industrial establishments, 183 
New Haven 's libraries, 148 
New Haven's park system, 92 
New London Railroad, 208 
Newman & Sons, I., 190 
Newspapers, 226, 243 
Newspapers, Foreign, 245 
News, The Yale, 245 
New World field of democracv, 91 



New York, New Haven & Hartford R. R., Be- 
ginnings of, 208 
' ' Nibbling ' ' process begun, 83 
Normal school at New Haven, 232 
North Branford, 414 
North Branford family names, 420 
North Branford industries, 418 
North Branford Masons, 419 
North Branford slaveholders, 416 
North Branford Soldiers' monument, 419 
North Branford 's early pastors, 417 
North Branford 's first meeting house, 417 
North church, 113 
"North Farms," 15, 414 
North Haven, 363 
North Haven agriculture, 366 . 
North Haven Memorial Library, 367 
North Haven schools, 367 
North Haven's church history, 365 
North Haven's industries, 365 
Notable medical men, 237 
Noyes, James, 23 
Noyes, Moses, 23 



O 



Odd Fellows Lodges, 272 

Officers of Civic Federation, 165 

Officers of Yale, 232 

Old and the New, The, 61 

"Old Doctor Sauford," 237 

Old elms sufficed, 64 

Oldest military organization in America, 251 

Oldest school, 136 

Old Hiram, No. 1, 269 

Old hotels, 243 

Old houses of Woodbridge, 411 

' ' Old Stone Church, ' ' 370 

"Old Stone House," 376 

Olivet Baptist, 129 

Olmsted, Frederick. L., 77 

O 'Meara, P. F., 109 

One student, 25 

"On this rock will I build," 111 

Opening canal in 1825, 206 

Orange, 308 

Orange dairy farming, 311 

Orange, foreign population of, 224 

Orange's church history, 310 

Order of Shepherds of Bethlehem, 279 

Order of L'nited American Mechanics, 278 

Organized Charities, 42, 229 

Oriental Emery Company, 190 

Original bounds of city, 100 

Origin of Civic Federation, 158 

Orphan Asylum School, 139 

Orjihan Societies, Women 's, 261 



INDEX 



433 



Osborn, Norris 6., 243 

Out of its century's dream, 6-t 

Outside telephone exchanges, 214 

Oven Equipment & Manufacturing Company, 

191 
"Oyster Point," 96 
Oysters, 100,000 tons of, 209 



Pageant of 1916, 49, 201 
Pardee, W. S., 106, 109, 228 
"Parish of Amity," 407 
Park bonds of 1889, 104 
Parks in 1910, 78 
Part of woman. The, 260 
Passenger elevators, 192 
Passenger vessels, till 1915, 208 
Pastor and Governor the rulers, 4 
Patriotic Order Sons of America, 278 
Peabody Museum, 44 
Peek Brothers & Co., 189 
Penmanship in schools, 143 
Peoples Bank & Trust Co., New Haven, 241 
People saving money, 66 
Permanent pavement commission, 105 
Perry, F. L., 109 
Pesaturo, Rev. Francesco, 69 
Phillips, Rev. W. L., 70, 115 
Physical culture movement, 147 
Physical training in schools, 144 
Physicians of New Haven, 226, 236 
Piano manufacture, 193 
Picture frames, Manufacturer of, 193 
Picturesque Woodbridge, 408 
Pierson, Abraham, 13 
Pierpont, Rev. James, 21 
Pilgrim Church, 123 
Pipe cutters, 189 
Piatt, Frank S., 248 
Pliers, nippers and punches, 189 
Plumbers' and steamfitters ' supplies, 176 
Pond rocks, 368 
Poll, Sylvester Z., 230 
Politicians, 226 

Population figures of New Haven, 217 
Population of Woodbridge, 406 
Population sliifts, 140 
Post, George D., 248 
Post-coach acme of speed, 205 
Postoffice building problem, 161 
£1,324 "and a negar," 21 
Practice of medicine in New Haven, 236 
' ' Praising God and raising hell, ' ' 39 
Preachers of New Haven, 2.30 
Prentiss, Rev. W. C, 117 
Prescott, Harry, 166 
Vol. I — 2 8 



President Hadley opened exercises, 31 

Presidents of Yale, 232 

Present officers of Telephone Company in 
New Haven, 214 

Press stand at the "Bowl," 198 

Preston, Isaac T., 30 

Price & Lee Company, 183, 246 

Price, Lee & Adkins Company, 246 

Printer, A famous, 227 

Printers, 226 

Printing companies, 192 

Printing houses, 246 

Private music schools, 147 

Process of assimilation of immigrants, 216 

Products brought to New Haven, 209 

Progress toward Americanism by foreign pop- 
ulation, 224 

Prominent New Haven citizens, 226 

Propeller Line, The, 207 

Proprietors committee, 82 

Provision in 1843 for wards, 101 

Provisions of Home Rule Bill, 107 

Publications of New Haven, 243 

Publicity Club, The, 73 

Public library described, 154 

Public library established, 103 

Public service institutions of New Haven, 242 

Publis service, men in, 226 

Public wells, 87 

Publishing companies, 192 

Pupils in various schools, 139 

Pupils of forty-five nationalities, 139 

Purchase of New Haven site, 11 

Putnam, Israel, 351 



Quakers, The, 216 
Quinnipiac Club, 279 
Quinnipiac Park, 97 
Quinnipiacs, The, 2 
Quinnipiacs welcome whites, 11 



R 



Racebrook Country Club, 281 

Race riot at Long Wharf, 2.54 

Race troubles absent, 222 

Races represented in New Haven, 216 

Radiators, New Haven made, 192 

Railroad between Hartford and New Haven 

opened, 207 
Railroading in its infancy, 208 
Railroad lines, 203 
Railroad officials, prominent, 243 
Railroads put canal out of business, 207 
Railroad system. New Haven's, 243 



434 



INDEX 



Raw materials carried to New Haven, 209 

Recommendations for civic improvement, 76 

Red Cross and Y. M. C. A. work, 145 

Regal Silver Company, 183, 193 

Religious intolerance, 375 

Remodeled church building for library, 151 

Report on county affairs, 162 

Residents of New Haven, 226 

Retired jurists and lawyers, 235 

Ke\'iews and journals, 244 

Revision of 1881, 103 

Revision of 1897-1900, 103 

Reynolds, M. A., 109 

Rice, Frank J., and sidewalks, 65 

Rice, Mayor Frank J., 51, 239 

Rivers as highways, 205 

Roger Sherman, 233 

Rogers, Henry Wade, 233 

Roman Catholic churches, 130 

Romance of New Haven manufactures, 185-193 

Root, Edwin P., 246 

Royal Arcanum, 278 

Rubber boots, 190 

Rubber industry, 181 

Rubber manufacture, 190 

Ruggles, Thomas, 23 

Russel, Rev. Samuel, 23 

Rnssell Military School, 137 

Russell, Noadiah, 22 

Russian district of New Haven, 220 

Russian influence, The, 218 



S 



St. Andrew's Chapel, 125 

St. Elmo Hall, 195 

St. Francis, 261 

St. James' in Westville, 123 

St. John's, 130 

St. John 's Episcopal, 124 

St. Luke's, 123 

St. Mary's, 130 

St. Patrick's, 130 

St. Paul's, 123 

St. Paul's Episcopal, 69 

St. Raphael's Hospital, 237 

St. Thomas, 124 

Sabin, Hezekiah, Jr., 255 

Sacred Heart Church, 130 

"Salt Meadow," 368 

Saltonstall, Gurdon, 23 

Sandy, Grassless tract, 84 

Sargent & Company, 181; Exhibit of, 189 

Sash, doors and blinds, 192 

Saturday Qironicle, The, 244 

Sausenunck, 12 

Savin Rock, 63, 316 



Savings banks of New Haven, 241 

Sawyer, Rev. L. A., 119 

SchoUhorn Company, William, 189 

School a melting pot, 144 

School Board, 1918, 140 

School circulation. Library books, 156 

School oflScers, 1918, 140 

School organization, 140 

Schools, Grades taught in various, 139 

Schools of New Haven, 136 

Schools teach forty-five nationalities, 139 

Scientific journals, 244 

Seal of the Union, 49 

Seamless Rubber Company, The, 190 

Seaside and Waterside Parks, 96 

"Seat of Yale College," 61 

Seating capacity of "Bowl," 198 

Second Company, Governor 's Horse Guard, 255 

Second game of Harvard- Yale on new grid- 
iron (Bowl), 198 

Second National Bank of New Haven, 241 

Second National Bank Building, 115 

Secretaries of Y. M. C. A., New Haven, 250 

Security Insurance Company, 242 

Seed companies, 248 
.Settlement work among foreigners, 223 

Seventy thousand spectators, 198 

Sewage disposal, 77 

Sewing in schools, 144 

Seymour, George Dudley, 44, 185, 226 

Shaar, Shalom, 132 

Shartcnberg 's, 248 

Shaumpishuh, .54 

Sheet metal and copper, 191 

Sherman, Roger, 233 

Shifts of population, 140 

Shipbuilding, 176 

Ships for foreign trade, 9 

Shore expansion, 63 

Short Line Electric Railway, 210 

Short on playgrounds, 78 

' ' Shot heard round the world, ' ' 252 

"Silver City," 287 

Silver goods, 193 

Silk yarns of every variety, 193 

"Six generations buried their dead," 81 

Six wards provided in 1857, 101 

Slaughter house district, 95 

"Sleeping Giant," 93, 348 

Small rubber articles "made in New Haven," 
190 

Smith & Company, John P., 191 

Smyth, Dr. Newman, 112 

Snow & Petrelli Manufacturing Company, 192 

Social Evolution, 216 

Social Library, 148 

Social Service Dance Committee, 266 



INDEX 



435 



Social uplift, 223 

Soldiers ' monument a town hall, 405 

Sons of American Revolution, 279 

Sons of Liberty, 86 

Sons of Temperance, 279 

Sons of Veterans, 279 

Southern New England Telephone Com- 
pany, 213 

Sowheag, 12 

Spanish Veterans, 279 

Spanish War, 255 

Specialists in the medical line, 237 

Sperry, Nehemiah D., 238 

Sperry & Amos Company, 193 

Sport at Yale, 194 

Spreading of population, 66 

Star of Bethlehem, 279 

Starin Line, The, 207 

Starr, Rev. H. E., 120 

State game farm, 404 

State museum, Guilford, 380 

State House, The old, 233 

Statistics of raw materials brought to New 
Haven, 209 

Steamboat competition in early days, 207 

Steamboat lines, 203 

Steamboat transportation, early, 207 

Stebbing Commercial and Secretarial 
School, 147 

Steel and steam fittings, 192 

Steel gates "made in New Haven," 192 

Steel toys, manufacture of, 183 

Stewart, M. J., 92 

Stocks and pillory on upper Green, 84 

Stocks for offenders, 20 

Stoddard, Ezekiel .G., 241 

Stokes, Rev. Anson Phelps, 232 

Stone Business College, 233 

Stony Creek, 338 

Stony Creek granite deposits, 340 

Stony Creek hotels, 339 

Ston_y Creek oysters, 341 

Stony Creek transportation, 341 

Stoughton, Captain, 2 

Street, Rev. Nicholas, 21 

Street building lines, 77, 160 

Street lighting, 86 

Street railway development, 209 

Streets well paved, well kept, 65 

Strife of town and gown, 29 

Strouse, Adler & Company, 190 

Strouse Corset Company, 190 

Students and Firemen Clash, 31 

Studley, Mayor J. P., 75, 235 

Study of problem of girl delinquency, 164 

Subscribers to first telephone, 212 

Subscriptions to canal projei-t of 1822, 205 



Suburban electric lines, 210 

Summary of New Haven manufactories, 183 

Superintendent of schools, 232 

Surface of the "Bowl," 198 

Surgeons of eminence in New Haven, 237 

Surplus school population, 66 

Surroundings of the "Bowl," 198 

Survey of Canal of 1822, 205 

"Survey of New Haven District," A, 163 

Swamps and marshes drained, 95 

Swede immigrants, 218 

Swedish Baptist church, 130 

Switchboard, the first telephone, 212 

Symphony orchestra, 36 

Symphony orchestra concerts, 44 

System of city squares, 92 

System of education better, 70 



T. A. B., 279 

Taft, William Howard, 226 

Tar products exhibited, 191 

Tardy appearance of public library, 148 

Taylor Congregational church, 121 

Taylor, Rev. N. W., 115 

Teachers at Yale, 232 

Teaching foreigners to become Americana, 

223 
Technical journals, 244 
Teele, Dr. Julia E., 223 
Telegraph service, 211 
Telephone building of New Haven, 214 
Telephone charter, first, 211 
Telephone established in New Haven, 211 
Telephone exchanges, 214 
Telephone in New Haven, 203, 213 
Telephone managers, 214 
Telephone subscribers, first, 212 
Tenement house committee, 162 
Teutons in New Haven, 220 
Theaters, a chain of, 230 
Theatrical reproductions at the "Bowl," 

200 
The Key to New England, 64 
"The perfect horse," 391 
"The Steps," 350 
"Things good to eat," 190 
Things New Haven makes, 66 
"Thirty or forty books in 1714," 27 
Thompson, Everard, 46, 201 
Thompson & Sons Company, Henry G., 189 
Three types of street paving, 65 
Thrift stamps. Liberty bonds, 145 
Thrifty foreign workers, 225 
Thurston, Asa, 30 
Ticket speculation for ball games, 195 



436 



LNDEX 



Tile hrifk maunfacturo, 19i 

Til!«B, John Q.. 23S 

Times-Leader. The, 244 

Tire holders, 192 

Todd, B«T, Jonathan, TO 

Toll^te. the last, CiM 

Tools for s^ieei*! purposes, 191 

■ ■ Too jiretty to burn, " ' So 

Tornado of 1ST6, 324 

Totoket, 14 

Townsend, VTUlianj K.. 2S5 

Tot motors, 1S3 

Tov railwavs, 192 

Trade sehools, ISS, 2S3 

Trades Coiuwil of Xew Haven, 2S2 

Transportation, 2l>3 

Trap rotfi quarry, 421 

Tree guards, manufaeturers of, 191 

Trinity parish. 122 

Trolley lines out of Xew Haven, 210 

Truei manufaeture, 191 

Trustees, State Museum, SSO 

Tuberculosis specialists, 257 

Turnpiie a ••toll line,"' 351 

Turnpikes, 203 

Tattle, Morehouse & Taylor Oompanv, 192, 

246 
Turtle "s Inn, 270 
Tvrifhell, Be v. Joseph H., 3S 
Two centuries of legal history, 233 
Tw»-hottT prayer and two-hour sermon. S4 
Two sons of Guilford, 3S3 

V 

niman, I. M^ 1(^, IS*, 1S6, 227 

TTneas^ 13 

••rneiur*hed," The, 112 

Union and Xew Haven Trust Company, 

241 
TTaioB League Chib, ^0 
Union, The, 244 
Union Veterans, 279 
Uniqueness of tie •'Bowl." 199 
Uniqne *hoTe resort, 3SS 
United nimninatiag- Oompanv, 190 243 
U. S. Weather Signal Station, 16S 
United Workers, 262 
United Workers" Boys" Qub, 41 
Uaiversalist ehureh, 134 
Universalis* pastors, 231 
r. O. G. F. lodges, 27S 
UtiBty coaqianies, publie, 242 



Variety of Xew Haven 's products, 1S9, 193 
Terdi, Antioiiv, 109 



Versatile in its industries, 6« 

Vessels calling at Xew Haven within year, 

number of, 209 
Visiting Xuise Association, 262 
Vocal music in graded schools, 143 

W 

Waldeu, Mrs. Percy T.. 264 
Walker. Prof. WiUiston. 52 
Wallingford, 319 
Wallingford l^uks. 323 
Wallingford church history. 320 
Wallingford fire dei\-jrtment. 322 
W.^Uingford foreign impwlation, 224 
Wallingford fraternal and social societies 

323 
Wallingford industries. 325 
Wallingford in World War, 324 
Wallingford public Ubrary, 323 
Wallingford schools. 322 
Wallingford water supply. 322 
Want to tax Tale, 34 
War gardens. 145 
W.^ird. Frederick M.. 230 
W.^rds established in ISoS 101 
Water Company, Xew Haven. 242 
Water heaters and coils, 191 
Water supply sources, 79 
Water transportation, early. 204 
Watrous, Eliot, 109 
Wealth of modem episode. 53 
Webb, James H.. 233 
Webb, Joseph, 22 

•Wedding" of Xew Haven and Tale, 49 
Weekly publications, 244-Jo 
Weir, Prof. J. F,, 75 
'W'elch, Lewis S_ 22S 
Welcome Hall, 41, 223 
West and East Kock. 92 
West End lastiniie, 137 
•WesT Farms,"" 14, 313 
^esT Haven. 313 
West Haven church history. 314 
West Haven incorporated 1S37, 315 
West Haven industries, 316 
West Haven schools, 315 
West Haven loday. 315 

West Haven Manufacturing Companv. 193 
WesT Haven "s Knni. 316 
What doing between meals? 62 
Wie^Jex Beeccer Memorial School, 146 
" • WhiiBfenpoof s ■ " The. 47 
Whipple. Harry V,. 541 
While Haven church. 113 
•White Way,-- 63 
Whitfield. Bev. Henry, 13 
Whitney. Elj, uj, <.jj 0^0 



INDEX 



4:j7 



Whitney Arms Company, 175 

Whittlesey, Mr. and Mrs. Joseph, 264 

Widening of Chapel street, 77 

Wilcox, Ella Wheeler, 299 

Willard, Rev. J. L,, 118 

Williams, Elisha, 25 

Wilson, Wood row, .'J9 

Winchester Repeating Arms Company, 142, 

188 
Wire manufactories, 247 
Wire, ornamental and useful, 191 
Woman, The j)art of, 260 
W. C. T. U., 279 

Wonder of the "Bowl," The, 199 
Woodliridge, Rev. Benjamin, 14 
Woodbridge, Timothy, 22 
Woodbridge, 406 
"Woodbridge Hills," 408 
Woodbridge 's industries, 409 
Woodmen of the World, 278 
Woodruff, Arthur E., 354 
Woodruff, Rollin S., 238 
Woolscy Hall, .'ie 
Wooster, General David, 270 
Wooster Square, 92 
W'ork of Chamber of Commerce, 169 
Wright, J. P., 176 
Wright, William A., 233 
Wynne, Kenneth, 109 



Yale, Anne, 21 

Yale, Elihu, 3, 27 

Yale, Thomas, 9 

Yale Alumni Weekly, 245 

Yale and New Haven Union, 41 

Yale athletic games, 44 

Yale Bicentennial Celebration, 38 

Yale Bowl, The, 194 

Yale Business College, 147 

Yale College, 16 

Yale football, 194 

Yale-Harvard games, ](H 

Yale Hope .Vfi;<Bion, 41 

Yale Medical School, 236 

Yale needed the public, 44 

Yale professors as citizens on city boards, 

42 
Yale publications, 245 
Yale Publishing Association, 24.j 
Yale Review, The, 245 
Yale School of Religion, 230 
Yale University, leaders in, 232 
Yale Y. M. C. A., 41 
Years of discord, 29 
Y. M. C. A., 71, 249, 262 
Young Men 's Institute, 148 
Young Men's Republican Club, 280 
Y. W. C. A.. 71 



Yacht specialties, 192 



Zoo, The, 93 



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